Ecclesiastes 3

3 ¹ For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under 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 dance; ⁵ a time to throw 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 gain has the worker from his toil? ¹⁰ I have seen the task that God has given people to keep them busy. ¹¹ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart, yet so that no one can find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹² I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good as long as they live; ¹³ and also that everyone should eat and drink and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people will stand in awe before him. ¹⁵ Whatever is, has already been; and whatever is to be, has already been; and God seeks out what has been driven away.

Wickedness in the Place of Justice

¹⁶ And I saw something else under the sun: in the place of judgment, wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there. ¹⁷ I said in my heart, "God will judge both the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every matter and for every deed there." ¹⁸ I said in my heart concerning people, "God is testing them so that they may see that they themselves are but animals." ¹⁹ For the fate of people and the fate of the animals is the same: as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and people have no advantage over the animals, for everything is fleeting. ²⁰ All go to one place; all came from the dust, and all return to the dust. ²¹ Who knows whether the human spirit rises upward and whether the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth? ²² So I saw that there is nothing better than for a person to rejoice in their work, for that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will come after them?