Ecclesiastes 3

1 To everything—a season, and a time to every delight under the heavens:

There is a right/correct time for everything, a time for everything that we do in this world.

2 A time to bring forth, And a time to die. A time to plant, And a time to eradicate the planted.

There is a time to be born, and there is a time to die. There is a time to plant [seeds], and there is a time to harvest crops.

3 A time to slay, And a time to heal, A time to break down, And a time to build up.

There is a time to kill [people], and there is a time to heal [people]. There is a time to tear things down, and there is a time to build things.

4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh. A time to mourn, And a time to skip.

There is a time to cry, and there is a time to laugh. There is a time to mourn, and there is a time to dance [joyfully].

5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to heap up stones. A time to embrace, And a time to be far from embracing.

There is a time to throw away stones [from a field], and there is a time to gather stones [to build walls/houses]. There is a time to embrace [people], and there is a time to not embrace [people].

6 A time to seek, And a time to destroy. A time to keep, And a time to cast away.

There is a time to search for things, and there is a time to stop searching for things. There is a time to keep/save things, and there is a time to throw things away.

7 A time to tear, And a time to sew. A time to be silent, And a time to speak.

There is a time to tear [our old clothes], and there is a time to mend [clothes]. There is a time to say nothing, and there is a time when we should speak.

8 A time to love, And a time to hate. A time of war, And a time of peace.

There is a time when we should love [things that people do], and there is a time when we should hate [things that people do]. There is a time for war, and there is a time for peace.

9 What advantage does the doer have in that which he is laboring at?

(What do people gain from all the work that they do?/It seems that people gain very little from all the work that they do [RHQ]).

10 I have seen the travail that God has given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.

I have seen the work that God has given people to do.

11 The whole He has made beautiful in its season; also, that knowledge He has put in their heart without which man does not find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.

God has appointed a time that is right/correct for everything to happen. He has [also] caused people to realize that there are things that will endure forever. But in spite of that, no one can completely understand everything that God has done, from the time that he starts doing things until he finishes them.

12 I have known that there is no good for them except to rejoice and to do good during their life,

I know that the best [LIT] thing for us people to do is to rejoice and to do good things [all] during the time that we are alive.

13 indeed, even every man who eats and has drunk and seen good by all his labor, it [is] a gift of God.

And I also know that everyone should eat and drink, and enjoy the work that they do. Those are things that God gives to us.

14 I have known that all that God does is for all time, to it nothing is to be added, and from it nothing is to be withdrawn; and God has worked that they fear before Him.

I [also] know that what God does endures forever. No one can add to what God does, and no one can take away from the things that God does. God does those things in order that people would revere him.

15 What is that which has been? Already it is, and that which [is] to be has already been, and God requires that which is pursued.

Things that exist now have already existed previously, and things that will happen in the future have already happened previously; God causes the same things to happen many times.

16 And again, I have seen under the sun the place of judgment—there [is] the wicked; and the place of righteousness—there [is] the wicked.

Furthermore, I saw that on this earth [MTY], even in the courts where we expect judges to make right decisions about what people had done, they did many wicked [DOU] things.

17 I said in my heart, “The righteous and the wicked God judges, for a time [is] to every matter and for every work there.”

[So] I said to myself [SYN], “God will judge [both] righteous [people] and wicked [people]; there is a time [for him to do that], because there is a time for him to do everything.”

18 I said in my heart concerning the matter of the sons of man that God might cleanse them, so as to see that they themselves [are] beasts.

And regarding humans, I [also] said to myself, “God is testing us, to show us that [in one way] people are no different than animals,

19 For an event [is to] the sons of man, and an event [is to] the beasts, even one event [is] to them; as the death of this, so [is] the death of that; and one spirit [is] to all, and the advantage of man above the beast is nothing, for the whole [is] vanity.

because what happens to people happens to animals. Animals die, and people die. We all must breathe [to remain alive]. [With regard to that], people have no advantage over animals, so I have a difficult time understanding that.

20 The whole are going to one place, the whole have been from the dust, and the whole are turning back to the dust.

[People and animals] all die and are buried. We are all made of soil, and [when we die], our corpses become soil again.

21 Who knows the spirit of the sons of man that is going up on high, and the spirit of the beast that is going down below to the earth?

No one knows [RHQ] for sure that when we die, our souls/spirits go up to heaven and the souls/spirits of animals go down to the place where the dead are.”

22 And I have seen that there is nothing better than that man rejoice in his works, for it [is] his portion; for who brings him to look on that which is after him?

So I concluded that the best thing for [us] people to do is to be happy about the work that we do, because that is what God has given to us. I say that because no one of us [RHQ] knows what happens to us after we die.