Ecclesiastes 3:8-22

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

⁹What profit hath he that worketh in that in which he laboreth?

¹⁰I have seen the labor, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

¹¹He hath made every thing beautiful in its time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

¹²I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

¹³And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labor, it is the gift of God.

¹⁴I know that, whatever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be added to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it , that men should fear before him.

¹⁵That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

¹⁶And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

¹⁷I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

¹⁸I said in my heart concerning the state of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

¹⁹For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yes, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

²⁰All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

²¹Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

²²Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?