Book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3
Ecclesiastes 3 RSV - Revised Standard Version Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes—Revised Standard Version (RSV)
- ¶ For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
- ¶ a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; - a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up; - a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance; - a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; - a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away; - a time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; - a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. - ¶ What gain has the worker from his toil?
- ¶ I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with.
- He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
- I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;
- also that it is God’s gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.
- I know that whatever God does endures for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has made it so, in order that men should fear before him.
- That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.
- ¶ Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.
- I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work.
- I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts.
- For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity.
- All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
- Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?
- So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should enjoy his work, for that is his lot; who can bring him to see what will be after him?
Read Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 in other Bible versions: