Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

MLV(i) 1 There is a season for everything and a time for every purpose 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 tear 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 profit has he who works in that in which he labors? 10 I have seen the tasks which God has given to the sons of men to be humbled by it.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time.
Also he has set the everlasting in their heart, yet so that man cannot find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.
12 I know that there is nothing better for them, than to rejoice and to do good as long as they live. 13 And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy good in all his labor. It is the gift of God. 14 I know that, whatever God does, it will be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it. And God has done it that men should fear before him.
15 What is, has been long ago and what is to be, has long ago been. And God seeks again what has passed away.
16 And moreover I saw under the sun, in the place of justice, that wickedness was there and in the place of righteousness, that wickedness was there.
17 I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous man and the wicked man, because there is a time for every purpose and for every work there.
18 I said in my heart, It is because of the sons of men, that God may prove them and that they may see that they themselves are beasts.
19 Because what befalls the sons of men befalls beasts, even one thing befalls them; as the one dies, so dies the other. Yes, they all have one breath and man has no preeminence above the beasts; because all is vanity.
20 All go to one place. All are from the dust and all turn to dust again. 21 Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward and the spirit of the beast, whether it goes downward to the earth?
22 Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works, because that is his portion. Because who will bring him back to see what will be after him?