|
[1]To all things there is an 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 to humble them thereby.
[11]He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the 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 gift of God.
[14]I know that whatsoever God shall do, it shall be 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 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 there for every purpose and for every work.
[18]I considered in mine heart the state of the children of men that God had purged them: yet to see to, they are in themselves as beasts.
[19]For the condition of the children of men, and the condition of beasts are even as one 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 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 rejoice in his affairs, because that is his portion. For who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
|