3 1 All things have their time. 14 The works of God are perfect, and cause us to fear him. 17 God shall judge both the just and unjust.
1 To all things there is an [a]appointed time, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
2 A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
3 A time to slay, and a time to heal: a time to break 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 cast away stones, and a time to gather stones: a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing.
6 A time to seek, and a time to lose: a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
7 A time to rent, and a time to sow: a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
8 A time to love, and a time to hate: a time of war, and a time of peace.
9 What profit hath he that worketh of the thing wherein he travaileth?
10 I have seen the travail that God hath given to the sons of men, [b]to humble them thereby.
11 He hath made everything beautiful in his time: also he hath set the [c]world in their heart, yet cannot man find out the work that God hath wrought from the beginning even to the end.
12 I know that there is nothing good in them, but to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13 And also that every man eateth and drinketh, and seeth the commodity of all his labor. This is the [d]gift of God.
14 I know that whatsoever God shall do, it shall be [e]forever: to it can no man add, and from it can none diminish: for God hath done it, that they should fear before him.
15 What is that that hath been? that is now: and that that shall be, hath now been: for God [f]requireth that which is past.
16 And moreover, I have seen under the Sun the place of judgment, where was wickedness, and the place of justice, where was iniquity.
17 I thought in mine heart, God will judge the just and the wicked: for time is [g]there for every purpose and for every work.
18 I considered in mine heart the state of the children of men, that God had [h]purged them: yet to see too, they are in themselves as beasts.
19 For the condition of the children of men, and the condition of beasts are even as one [i]condition unto them. As the one dieth, so dieth the other: for they have all one breath, and there is no excellency of man above the beast: for all is vanity.
20 All go to one place, and all was of the dust, and all shall return to the dust.
21 Who [j]knoweth whether the spirit of man ascend upward, and the spirit of the beast descend downward to the earth?
22 Therefore I see that there is nothing better than that a man should [k]rejoice in his affairs, because that is his portion. For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 3:1 He speaketh of this diversity of time for two causes: first to declare that there is nothing in this world perpetual: next to teach us not to be grieved, if we have not all things at once according to our desires, neither enjoy them so long as we would wish.
- Ecclesiastes 3:10 Read Eccl. 1:13.
- Ecclesiastes 3:11 God hath given man a desire, and affection to seek out the things of this world, and to labor therein.
- Ecclesiastes 3:13 Read Eccl. 2:24, and these places declare that we should do all things with sobriety and in the fear of God, forasmuch as he giveth not his gifts to the intent that they should be abused.
- Ecclesiastes 3:14 That is, man shall never be able to let God’s work, but as he hath determined, so it shall come to pass.
- Ecclesiastes 3:15 God only causeth that, which is past, to return.
- Ecclesiastes 3:17 Meaning, with God, howsoever man neglect his duty.
- Ecclesiastes 3:18 And made them pure in their first creation.
- Ecclesiastes 3:19 Man is not able by his reason and judgment to put difference between man and beast, as touching those things whereunto both are subject: for the eye cannot judge any otherwise of a man being dead, than of a beast, which is dead: yet by the word of God and faith we easily know the diversity, as verse 21.
- Ecclesiastes 3:21 Meaning, that reason cannot comprehend that which faith believeth herein.
- Ecclesiastes 3:22 By the often repetition of this sentence, as Eccl. 2:24; 3:12, 22; 5:17 and 8:15, he declareth that man by reason can comprehend nothing better in this life, than to use the gifts of God soberly and comfortably: for to know further, is a special gift of God revealed by his Spirit.