Ecclesiastes 3:1-14

The Voice

3 Teacher: For everything that happens in life—there is a season, a right time for everything under heaven:

²    A time to be born, a time to die;
        a time to plant, a time to collect the harvest;
³    A time to kill, a time to heal;
        a time to tear down, a time to build up;
⁴    A time to cry, a time to laugh;
        a time to mourn, a time to dance;
⁵    A time to scatter stones, a time to pile them up;
        a time for a warm embrace, a time for keeping your distance;
⁶    A time to search, a time to give up as lost;
        a time to keep, a time to throw out;
⁷    A time to tear apart, a time to bind together;
        a time to be quiet, a time to speak up;
⁸    A time to love, a time to hate;
        a time to go to war, a time to make peace.

⁹What good comes to anyone who works so hard, all to gain a few possessions? ¹⁰I have seen the kinds of tasks God has given each of us to do to keep one busy, ¹¹and I know God has made everything beautiful for its time. God has also placed in our minds a sense of eternity; we look back on the past and ponder over the future, yet we cannot understand the doings of God. ¹²I know there is nothing better for us than to be joyful and to do good throughout our lives; ¹³to eat and drink and see the good in all of our hard work is a gift from God. ¹⁴I know everything God does endures for all time. Nothing can be added to it; nothing can be taken away from it. We humans can only stand in awe of all God has done.