the Fourth Week of Advent
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Myles Coverdale Bible
Ecclesiastes 3
1 Every thinge hath a tyme, yee all that is vnder the heauen, hath is conuenient season.2 There is a tyme to be borne, and a tyme to dye. There is a tyme to plate, and a tyme to plucke vp the thinge, yt is planted:3 A tyme to slaye, and a tyme to make whole: A tyme to breake downe, and a tyme to buylde vp:4 A tyme to wepe, and a tyme to laugh: A tyme to mourne, and a tyme to daunse:5 A tyme to cast awaye stones, and a tyme to gather stones together: A tyme to enbrace, & a tyme to refrayne from enbracynge:6 A tyme to wynne, and a tyme to lese: A tyme to spare, and a tyme to spende:7 A tyme to cutt in peces, and a tyme to sowe together: A tyme to kepe sylece, and a tyme to speake:8 A tyme to loue, & a tyme to hate: A tyme of warre, and a tyme of peace.9 What hath a ma els (that doth eny thinge) but weerynesse and laboure?10 For as touchinge the trauayle and carefulnesse which God hath geuen vnto me, I se that he hath geuen it them, to be exercised in it.
11 All this hath he ordened maruelous goodly, to euery thinge his due tyme. He hath plated ignoraunce also in the hertes of men, yt they shulde not fynde out ye grounde of his workes, which he doth from ye beginninge to ye ende.12 So I perceaued, yt in these thinges there is nothinge better for a man, the to be mery & to do well so longe as he lyueth.13 For all yt a man eateth & drynketh, yee what so euer a ma enioyeth of all his labor, ye same is a gift of God.14 I cosidered also yt what so euer God doth, it cotinueth for euer, & yt nothinge can be put vnto it ner take from it: & yt God doth it to ye intent, yt men shulde feare him.15 The thinge yt hath bene, is now: & the thinge yt is for to come, hath bene afore tyme, for God restoreth agayne the thinge that was past.
16 Morouer, I sawe vnder ye Sonne, vngodlynesse in the steade of iudgment, & iniquite in steade of rightuousnesse.17 Then thought I in my mynde: God shal separate the rightuous from the vngodly, & then shal be the tyme & iudgmet of all councels & workes.18 I comoned wt myne owne herte also cocernynge the childre of men: how God hath chosen them, and yet letteth the apeare, as though they were beastes:19 for it happeneth vnto men as it doth vnto beastes, & as the one dyeth, so dyeth ye other: yee they haue both one maner of breth, so yt (in this) a man hath no preemynence aboue a beest, but all are subdued vnto vanite.20 They go all vnto one place, for as they be all of dust, so shal they all turne vnto dust againe.21 Who knoweth the sprete of man yt goeth vpwarde, and the breth of the beest yt goeth downe in to the earth?22 Wherfore I perceaue, yt there is nothyinge better for a man, then to be ioyfull in his laboure, for that is his porcion. But who wil brynge him to se the thinge, that shal come after him?