Ecclésiaste 3
1 Il y a une saison pour tout, et il y a un temps pour toute affaire sous les cieux.
There is a right/correct time for everything, a time for everything that we do in this world.
2 Il y a un temps de naître, et un temps de mourir; un temps de planter, et un temps d’arracher ce qui est planté;
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 un temps de tuer, et un temps de guérir; un temps de démolir, et un temps de bâtir;
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 un temps de pleurer, et un temps de rire; un temps de se lamenter, et un temps de sauter de joie;
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 un temps de jeter des pierres, et un temps d’amasser des pierres; un temps d’embrasser, et un temps de s’éloigner des embrassements;
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 un temps de chercher, et un temps de perdre; un temps de garder, et un temps de jeter;
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 un temps de déchirer, et un temps de coudre; un temps de se taire, et un temps de parler;
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 un temps d’aimer, et un temps de haïr; un temps de guerre, et un temps de paix.
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 Celui qui agit, quel profit a-t-il de ce à quoi il travaille?
(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 J’ai vu l’occupation que Dieu a donnée aux fils des hommes pour s’y fatiguer:
I have seen the work that God has given people to do.
11 il a fait toute chose belle en son temps; et il a mis le monde dans leur cœur, de sorte que l’homme ne peut comprendre, depuis le commencement jusqu’à la fin, l’œuvre que Dieu a faite.
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 J’ai connu qu’il n’y a rien de bon pour eux, sauf de se réjouir et de se faire du bien pendant leur vie;
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 et aussi que tout homme mange et boive, et qu’il jouisse du bien-être dans tout son travail: cela, c’est un don de Dieu.
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 J’ai connu que tout ce que Dieu fait subsiste à toujours; il n’y a rien à y ajouter, ni rien à en retrancher; et Dieu le fait, afin que, devant lui, on craigne.
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 Ce qui est a déjà été, et ce qui est à venir est déjà arrivé, et Dieu ramène ce qui est passé.
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 Et j’ai encore vu sous le soleil que, dans le lieu du jugement, là il y avait la méchanceté, et que, dans le lieu de la justice, là il y avait la méchanceté.
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 J’ai dit en mon cœur: Dieu jugera le juste et le méchant; car il y a là un temps pour toute affaire et pour toute œuvre.
[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 J’ai dit en mon cœur: Quant aux fils des hommes [il en est ainsi], pour que Dieu les éprouve, et qu’ils voient eux-mêmes qu’ils ne sont que des bêtes.
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 Car ce qui arrive aux fils des hommes est aussi ce qui arrive aux bêtes; il y a pour tous un même sort: comme celle-ci meurt, ainsi meurt celui-là; et ils ont tous un même souffle, et l’homme n’a point d’avantage sur la bête, car tout est vanité.
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 Tout va dans un même lieu, tout est de poussière, et tout retourne à la poussière.
[People and animals] all die and are buried. We are all made of soil, and [when we die], our corpses become soil again.
21 Qui est-ce qui connaît l’esprit des fils des hommes? Celui-ci monte-t-il en haut, et l’esprit de la bête descend-il en bas dans la terre?
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 Et j’ai vu qu’il n’y a rien de mieux [que ceci]: que l’homme se réjouisse dans ce qu’il fait, car c’est là sa part; car qui l’amènera pour voir ce qui sera après lui?
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.
