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Ecclesiastes / A Time for Every Season: God’s Sovereignty and Human Limits
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A Time for Every Season: God’s Sovereignty and Human Limits

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

3
Chapter 3
1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. 2 A time to give birth and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. 3 A time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build. 4 A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to lament and a time to dance. 5 A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones, a time to embrace and a time to distance from an embrace. 6 A time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to throw away. 7 a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to be silent and a time to speak. 8 A time to love and a time to hate, a time of war and a time of peace. 9 What profit to the one doing in that which he toils? 10 I have seen the task that God has given to the sons of men to be humbled by it. 11 He made everything beautiful in its time. He also put eternity in their heart, without which a person cannot find the work that God made from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing good for them except to rejoice and to do good in his life. 13 And also that every man who eats and drinks and sees good in all his toil is a gift of God. 14 I know that all that God does will be forever. There is nothing to add to it, and nothing to take from it. God has done it so that they might fear him. 15 What has been—it already is, and what is to be—already has been, and God seeks the pursued. 16 And again I saw under the sun the place of justice where there was wickedness and the place of righteousness where there was wickedness. 17 I said in my heart, "God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time for every desire and upon every deed is the Name." 18 I said in my heart concerning the matter of the sons of Adam, to clear God and to see that they are beasts to them. 19 For the happening of the sons of humanity and the happening of the beast is one happening to them: as this dies, so this dies, and one spirit to all; and the superiority of humanity from the beast is nothing, for all is הבל. 20 Everything goes to one place. Everything was from the dust, and everything returns to the dust. 21 Who knows the spirit of the sons of humanity, whether it ascends upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it descends downward to the land. 22 And I saw that there is no good better than that the man rejoice in his deeds, for it is his portion. For who will bring him to see what will exist after him?