Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything Under Heaven

← Ecclesiastes 2  ·  Ecclesiastes: all chapters  ·  Ecclesiastes 4 →

A Time for Every Matter Beneath Heaven

3:1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter beneath heaven:

3:2a time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted,

3:3a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to pull down and a time to build,

3:4a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to beat the breast in mourning and a time to dance,

3:5a time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to keep far from embracing,

3:6a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

3:7a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

3:8a time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace.

He Has Made Everything Beautiful in Its Time

3:9What surplus does the worker gain from the things for which he toils?

3:10I saw the distraction God has given human beings to be distracted by.

3:11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also put the age in their hearts, so that human beings may not find out the work God has done from beginning to end.

3:12I knew that there is no good for them except to rejoice and do good during one’s life.

3:13Moreover, whenever a person eats and drinks and sees good in all his toil, this is God’s gift.

3:14I knew that everything God has done will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it; God has done this so that people may fear before Him.

3:15What has come to be already is, and whatever is to come has already come to be; God will seek the one who is pursued.

In the Place of Judgment

3:16Again I saw beneath the sun: in the place of judgment, the ungodly person was there; in the righteous person’s place, the ungodly person was there.

3:17I said in my heart: God will judge the righteous and the ungodly, for there is a time for every matter and for every work.

3:18There I said in my heart concerning human beings’ speech: God will distinguish them and show that they themselves are beasts, even to themselves.

3:19For the fate of human beings and the fate of the beast is one fate for them: as one dies, so the other dies, and all have one breath. What advantage has a human being over the beast? None, for everything is futility.

3:20All go to one place; all came from dust, and all return to dust.

3:21Who knows whether the spirit of human beings goes upward, and whether the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

3:22I saw that there is no good except for a person to rejoice in his works, for that is his portion. For who will bring him to see what may happen after him?

← Ecclesiastes 2  ·  Ecclesiastes: all chapters  ·  Ecclesiastes 4 →

Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.