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¹ For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:² a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;³ a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;⁴ a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;⁵ a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;⁶ a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;⁷ a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;⁸ a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.⁹ What gain has the worker from his toil?¹⁰ I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with.

¹¹ 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.¹² I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;¹³ also that it is God's gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.¹⁴ 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.¹⁵ That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

¹⁶ 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.¹⁷ 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.¹⁸ 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.¹⁹ 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.²⁰ All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.²¹ Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?²² 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?