Ecclesiastes 3:9-14

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The God-Given Task

⁹ What gain have the workers from their toil?^{(A) 10} I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.^{(B) 11} He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.^{(C) 12} I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³ moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. ¹⁴ I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it; God has done this so that all should stand in awe before him.^(D)