Study Desk

There is a time^(a) for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,^(b)

a time to kill^(c) and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent^(d) and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil?^(e)

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.^(f)

He has made everything beautiful in its time.^(g) He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom^(h) what God has done from beginning to end.⁽ⁱ⁾

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

That each of them may eat and drink,^(j) and find satisfaction^(k) in all their toil—this is the gift of God.^(l)

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 people will fear him.^(m)

Whatever is has already been,⁽ⁿ⁾ and what will be has been before;^(o) and God will call the past to account.^[b]

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

I said to myself, "God will bring into judgment^(p) both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed."^(q)

I also said to myself, "As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.^(r)

Surely the fate of human beings^(s) is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath^[c]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.

All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.^(t)

Who knows if the human spirit rises upward^(u) and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"

So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work,^(v) because that is their lot.^(w) For who can bring them to see what will happen after them?