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A
Time for Everything
1. There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity
under heaven:
2. a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to
uproot,
3. a time to kill 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,
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 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 does the worker gain from his toil?
10. I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
11. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set
eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done
from beginning to end.
12. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do
good while they live.
13. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his
toil--this is the gift of God.
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 men will
revere him.
15. Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and
God will call the past to account.
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 thought in my heart, "God will bring to judgment both the
righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a
time for every deed."
18. I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see
that they are like the animals.
19. Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them
both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; man has
no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless.
20. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all
return.
21. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the
animal goes down into the earth?"
22. So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his
work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will
happen after him? |