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Ecclesiastes 3
Contemporary English Version
Ecclesiastes 3
Contemporary English Version
Everything Has Its Time
3 Everything on earth
has its own time
and its own season.
2 There is a time
for birth and death,
planting and reaping,
3 for killing and healing,
destroying and building,
4 for crying and laughing,
weeping and dancing,
5 for throwing stones
and gathering stones,
embracing and parting.
6 There is a time
for finding and losing,
keeping and giving,
7 for tearing and sewing,
listening and speaking.
8 There is also a time
for love and hate,
for war and peace.
What God Has Given Us To Do
9 What do we gain by all our hard work? 10 I have seen what difficult things God demands of us. 11 God makes everything happen at the right time. Yet none of us can ever fully understand all he has done, and he puts questions in our minds about the past and the future. 12 I know the best thing we can do is to always enjoy life, 13 because God's gift to us is the happiness we get from our food and drink and from the work we do. 14 Everything God has done will last forever; nothing he does can ever be changed. God has done all this, so that we will worship him.
15 Everything that happens
has happened before,
and all that will be
has already been—
God does everything
over and over again.[a]
The Future Is Known Only to God
16 Everywhere on earth I saw violence and injustice instead of fairness and justice. 17 So I told myself that God has set a time and a place for everything. He will judge everyone, both the wicked and the good. 18 I know God is testing us to show us that we are merely animals. 19 Like animals we breathe and die, and we are no better off than they are. It just doesn't make sense. 20 All living creatures go to the same place. We are made from earth, and we return to earth. 21 Who really knows if our spirits go up and the spirits of animals go down into the earth? 22 We were meant to enjoy our work, and that's the best thing we can do. We can never know the future.
Footnotes
- 3.15 God does … again: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
Ecclesiastes 3
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 3
New International Version
A Time for Everything
3 There is a time(A) for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,(B)
3 a time to kill(C) and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent(D) 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 do workers gain from their toil?(E) 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.(F) 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.(G) He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet[a] no one can fathom(H) what God has done from beginning to end.(I) 12 I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. 13 That each of them may eat and drink,(J) and find satisfaction(K) in all their toil—this is the gift of God.(L) 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.(M)
15 Whatever is has already been,(N)
and what will be has been before;(O)
and God will call the past to account.[b]
16 And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment—wickedness was there,
in the place of justice—wickedness was there.
17 I said to myself,
“God will bring into judgment(P)
both the righteous and the wicked,
for there will be a time for every activity,
a time to judge every deed.”(Q)
18 I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.(R) 19 Surely the fate of human beings(S) is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.(T) 21 Who knows if the human spirit rises upward(U) and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”
22 So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work,(V) because that is their lot.(W) For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 3:11 Or also placed ignorance in the human heart, so that
- Ecclesiastes 3:15 Or God calls back the past
- Ecclesiastes 3:19 Or spirit
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