1To all things there is an appointed time, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.
2A time to be born, and a time to die: a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.
3A time to slay, and a time to heal: a time to break down, and a time to build.
4A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance.
5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones: a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embracing.
6A time to seek, and a time to lose: a time to keep, and a time to cast away.
7A time to rent, and a time to sow: a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
8A time to love, and a time to hate: a time of war, and a time of peace.
9What profit hath he that worketh of the thing wherein he travaileth?
10I have seen the travail that God hath given to the sons of men, to humble them thereby.
11He hath made everything 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.
12I know that there is nothing good in them, but to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
13And also that every man eateth and drinketh, and seeth the commodity of all his labor. This is the gift of God.
14I 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.
15What is that that hath been? that is now: and that that shall be, hath now been: for God requireth that which is past.
16And moreover, I have seen under the Sun the place of judgment, where was wickedness, and the place of justice, where was iniquity.
17I thought in mine heart, God will judge the just and the wicked: for time is there for every purpose and for every work.
18I considered in mine heart the state of the children of men, that God had purged them: yet to see too, they are in themselves as beasts.
19For 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.
20All go to one place, and all was of the dust, and all shall return to the dust.
21Who knoweth whether the spirit of man ascend upward, and the spirit of the beast descend downward to the earth?
22Therefore 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?