Add parallel Print Page Options

God Has Ordained the Ebb and Flow of Human Activities

For everything there is an appointed time, a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to bear[a] and a time to die;
    a time to plant and a time to root up what is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal;
    a time to break down and a time to build up;
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
    a time to mourn and a time to dance;
a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones;
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek and a time to lose;
    a time to keep and a time to throw away;
a time to tear and a time to sew;
    a time to be silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
    a time for war and a time for peace.

What does the worker gain in his toil?

No One Understands God’s Mysterious Plan

10 I have seen the busyness God gives to humans[b] to preoccupy[c] them. 11 He has made everything suitable in its time. He also has put the past[d] in their hearts, yet no one can grasp what God does from the beginning to the end. 12 So I realized that there is nothing better[e] for them than to rejoice and enjoy themselves[f] during their lives. 13 And for anyone to eat and drink, that is, to enjoy the fruit of all his toil,[g] this also is a gift of God.

14 I know everything God does endures forever;
    nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it,
        for God so acts that humans[h] might stand in awe before him.
15 What is—it already was,
    and what will be—it already is,
        for God will do what he has done.[i]

God’s Mysterious Plan Allows Injustice to Exist in the World

16 I saw something else under the sun: instead of justice there was evil; instead of righteousness there was wickedness. 17 So I said to myself,[j] “God will surely judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed[k] a time of judgment for every deed and every work.”

18 I said to myself concerning humans,[l] “God sifts[m] them in order to show[n] them that they are like beasts.” 19 For the fate of humans[o] and the fate of the beast is the same.[p] The death of the one is like the death of the other, for both are mortal.[q] Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting. 20 Both go to one place—both came from dust and both return to dust. 21 For no one knows whether the spirit of a human ascends to heaven and whether the spirit of the beast descends to the ground!

22 So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy the fruit of his labor, for this is his lot in life. For no one knows what will happen in the future.[r]

Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:2 Or “a time to be born”; MT reads the active form “to bear children
  2. Ecclesiastes 3:10 Literally “the sons of the man”
  3. Ecclesiastes 3:10 Or “to be busy”
  4. Ecclesiastes 3:11 Literally “eternity”
  5. Ecclesiastes 3:12 Literally “no good”
  6. Ecclesiastes 3:12 Literally “to rejoice and to do good”
  7. Ecclesiastes 3:13 Literally “to see good in all his toil”
  8. Ecclesiastes 3:14 Or “they”
  9. Ecclesiastes 3:15 Literally “God seeks what is pursued”
  10. Ecclesiastes 3:17 Literally “in my heart”
  11. Ecclesiastes 3:17 The MT reads שָׁם “there,” but repointing to שָׂם, “he has appointed,” makes better sense
  12. Ecclesiastes 3:18 Literally “the sons of the man”
  13. Ecclesiastes 3:18 Or “tests”
  14. Ecclesiastes 3:18 The MT reads active “to see,” but causative “to show” is reflected by LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Latin Vulgate
  15. Ecclesiastes 3:19 Literally “the sons of the man”
  16. Ecclesiastes 3:19 Literally “is one”
  17. Ecclesiastes 3:19 Literally “and one breath is for all”
  18. Ecclesiastes 3:22 Literally “For who can bring him to see in what will be after him?”

A season for everything

There’s a season for everything
    and a time for every matter under the heavens:
    a time for giving birth and a time for dying,
    a time for planting and a time for uprooting what was planted,
    a time for killing and a time for healing,
    a time for tearing down and a time for building up,
    a time for crying and a time for laughing,
    a time for mourning and a time for dancing,
    a time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones,
    a time for embracing and a time for avoiding embraces,
    a time for searching and a time for losing,
    a time for keeping and a time for throwing away,
    a time for tearing and a time for repairing,
    a time for keeping silent and a time for speaking,
    a time for loving and a time for hating,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

Hard work

What do workers gain from all their hard work? 10 I have observed the task that God has given human beings. 11 God has made everything fitting in its time, but has also placed eternity in their hearts, without enabling them to discover what God has done from beginning to end.

12 I know that there’s nothing better for them but to enjoy themselves and do what’s good while they live. 13 Moreover, this is the gift of God: that all people should eat, drink, and enjoy the results of their hard work. 14 I know that whatever God does will last forever; it’s impossible to add to it or take away from it. God has done this so that people are reverent before him.[a] 15 Whatever happens has already happened, and whatever will happen has already happened before. And God looks after what is driven away.[b]

Enjoy what you do now

16 I saw something else under the sun: in the place of justice, there was wickedness; and in the place of what was right, there was wickedness again! 17 I thought to myself, God will judge both righteous and wicked people, because there’s a time for every matter and every deed. 18 I also thought, Where human beings are concerned, God tests them to show them that they are but animals 19 because human beings and animals share the same fate. One dies just like the other—both have the same life-breath. Humans are no better off than animals because everything is pointless.

20 All go to the same place:
    all are from the dust;
    all return to the dust.

21 Who knows if a human being’s life-breath rises upward while an animal’s life-breath descends into the earth? 22 So I perceived that there was nothing better for human beings but to enjoy what they do because that’s what they’re allotted in life. Who, really, is able to see what will happen in the future?

Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 3:14 Or to inspire awe before the divine
  2. Ecclesiastes 3:15 Or God seeks out what is pursued, or God seeks what has gone by, or God seeks the pursued; Heb uncertain