3:1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

3:2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3:3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

3:4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

3:5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

3:6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

3:7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,

3:8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

3:9 What does the worker gain from his toil?

3:10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men.

3:11 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.

3:12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.

3:13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God.

3:14 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.

3:15 Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.

3:16 And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment--wickedness was there, in the place of justice--wickedness was there.

3:17 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."

3:18 I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.

3:19 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.

3:20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

3:21 Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

3:22 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?