ECCLESIASTES 3

There is a right time for everything

1 There is a right/correct time for everything,

a time for everything that we do in this world.

2 There is a time to be born, and there is a time to die.

There is a time to plant seeds, and there is a time to harvest crops.

3 There is a time to kill people, and there is a time to heal people.

There is a time to tear things down, and there is a time to build things.

4 There is a time to cry, and there is a time to laugh.

There is a time to mourn, and there is a time to dance joyfully.

5 There is a time to throw away stones from a field, and there is a time to gather stones to build walls/houses.

There is a time to embrace people, and there is a time to not embrace people.

6 There is a time to search for things, and there is a time to stop searching for things.

There is a time to keep/save things, and there is a time to throw things away.

7 There is a time to tear our old clothes, and there is a time to mend clothes.

There is a time to say nothing, and there is a time when we should speak.

8 There is a time when we should love things that people do, and there is a time when we should hate things that people do.

There is a time for war, and there is a time for peace.

9 ◄What do people gain from all the work that they do?/It seems that people gain very little from all the work that they do [RHQ]►. 10 I have seen the work that God has given people to do. 11 God has appointed a time that is right/correct for everything to happen. He has also caused people to realize that there are things that will endure forever. But in spite of that, no one can completely understand everything that God has done, from the time that he starts doing things until he finishes them. 12 I know that the best [LIT] thing for us people to do is to rejoice and to do good things all during the time that we are alive. 13 And I also know that everyone should eat and drink, and enjoy the work that they do. Those are things that God gives to us. 14 I also know that what God does endures forever. No one can add to what God does, and no one can take away from the things that God does. God does those things in order that people would revere him.

15 Things that exist now have already existed previously,

and things that will happen in the future have already happened previously;

God causes the same things to happen many times.

Injustices in the world

16 Furthermore, I saw that on this earth [MTY],

even in the courts where we expect judges to make right decisions about what people had done,

they did many wicked [DOU] things.

17 So I said to myself [SYN], “God will judge both righteous people and wicked people;

there is a time for him to do that,

because there is a time for him to do everything.”

18 And regarding humans, I also said to myself, “God is testing us, to show us that in one way people are no different than animals, 19 because what happens to people happens to animals. Animals die, and people die. We all must breathe to remain alive. With regard to that, people have no advantage over animals, so I have a difficult time understanding that. 20 People and animals all die and are buried. We are all made of soil, and when we die, our corpses become soil again. 21 No one knows [RHQ] for sure that when we die, our souls/spirits go up to heaven and the souls/spirits of animals go down to the place where the dead are.”

22 So I concluded that the best thing for us people to do is to be happy about the work that we do, because that is what God has given to us. I say that because no one of us [RHQ] knows what happens to us after we die.

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