Ecclesiastes 3:5-21

⁵A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones: a time to embrace, and a time to be farre from embracing.

⁶A time to seeke, and a time to lose: a time to keepe, and a time to cast away.

⁷A time to rent, and a time to sowe: a time to keepe silence, and a time to speake.

⁸A time to loue, and a time to hate: a time of warre, and a time of peace.

⁹What profite hath hee that worketh of the thing wherein he trauaileth?

¹⁰I haue seene the trauaile that God hath giuen to ye sonnes of men to humble them thereby.

¹¹He hath made euery thing beautifull in his time: also he hath set the worlde in their heart, yet can not man finde out the worke that God hath wrought from the beginning euen to the end.

¹²I know that there is nothing good in them, but to reioyce, and to doe good in his life.

¹³And also that euery man eateth and drinketh, and seeth the commoditie of all his labour. this is the gift of God.

¹⁴I knowe that whatsoeuer God shall doe, it shalbe for euer: to it can no man adde, and from it can none diminish: for God hath done it, that they should feare before him.

¹⁵What is that that hath bene? that is nowe: and that that shalbe, hath now bene: for God requireth that which is past.

¹⁶And moreouer I haue seene vnder the sunne the place of iudgement, where was wickednesse, and the place of iustice where was iniquitie.

¹⁷I thought in mine heart, God wil iudge the iust and the wicked: for time is there for euery purpose and for euery worke.

¹⁸I considered in mine heart the state of the children of men that God had purged them: yet to see to, they are in themselues as beastes.

¹⁹For the condition of the children of men, and the condition of beasts are euen as one condition vnto them. As the one dyeth, so dyeth the other: for they haue all one breath, and there is no excellency of man aboue ye beast: for all is vanitie.

²⁰All goe to one place, and all was of the dust, and all shall returne to the dust.

²¹Who knoweth whether the spirit of man ascend vpward, and the spirit of the beast descend downeward to the earth?