1For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under the heavens:
2a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted;
3a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up;
4a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;
5a time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
6a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to cast away;
7a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
8a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time of peace.
9What profit does the worker gain from that in which he toils?
10I have seen the task that God has given to the sons of man to be occupied with.
11He has made everything beautiful in its time; he has also put eternity in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God has done from beginning to end.
12I know that there is nothing good in them except to rejoice and to do good in one’s life.
13And also that every person should eat and drink and see good in all his toil—this is the gift of God.
14I know that whatever God does, it will be forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it; and God has done it so that they should fear before him.
15Whatever is has already been, and what is to be has already been; and God seeks out what has been pursued.
16And again I saw under the sun: in the place of judgment, there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, there was wickedness.
17I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every work there.”
18I said in my heart concerning the sons of man that God tests them, and to show that they themselves are but beasts.
19For the fate of the sons of man and the fate of the beast is one and the same fate for them: as one dies, so dies the other; they all have one breath, and man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vapor.
20All go to one place; all came from the dust, and all return to the dust.
21Who knows whether the breath of the sons of man goes upward, and whether the breath of the beast goes downward to the earth?
22So I saw that there is nothing better than that a person should rejoice in his works, for that is his portion; for who can bring him to see what will be after him?
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