Ecclesiastes or Preacher 03 There is a time for everything, and a season appointed by God.

 Ecclesiastes or Preacher 03

There is a time for everything, and a season appointed by God.

1 To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to leap;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

7 A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

9 What advantage has the worker in what he toils at? 

10 I have seen the toil God has given to the sons of men to afflict them with.

11 He has made everything beautiful in its time; he has also set the world in their hearts, so that no one can find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

12 I have seen that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in their lives.

13 And that everyone should eat and drink and find good in all their labor—this is the gift of God.

14 I know that whatever God does will last forever; nothing can be added to it, nor can anything be taken away from it. God does this so that people fear him.

15 What has been has already been, and what will be has already been; and God demands an account of what has passed.

16 I have seen under the sun: in the place of judgment, wickedness; and in the place of righteousness, wickedness still. 

17 I said in my heart, "God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time for every purpose and for every work."

18 I said in my heart, "It is for the sake of the sons of men, that God may test them, and they may see that they themselves are like animals."

19 For what happens to the sons of men happens to animals; one thing happens to them: as one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath; and man has no advantage over animals, for they are all vanity.

20 All go to one place; all are dust, and all return to dust.

21 Who knows that the breath of the sons of men ascends upward, and that the breath of animals descends downward into the earth?

22 Therefore I have seen that there is nothing better than for a man to rejoice in his work, for that is his portion. For who will bring him back to see what will be after him?