Study

Everything Has Its Time

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For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

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a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

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a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

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a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

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a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

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a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

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a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

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a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

The God-Given Task

⁹ What gain have the workers from their toil? ¹⁰I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with. ¹¹He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. ¹²I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. ¹⁴I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe before him. ¹⁵That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already is; and God seeks out what has gone by.

Judgment and the Future Belong to God

¹⁶ Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well. ¹⁷I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter, and for every work. ¹⁸I said in my heart with regard to human beings that God is testing them to show that they are but animals. ¹⁹For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity. ²⁰All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. ²¹Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth? ²²So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?