Ecclesiastes 3:1-22 AMPC

[1] To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter or 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 get and a time to lose, a time to keep and a time to cast away, [7] A time to rend 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 remains for the worker from his toil? [10] I have seen the painful labor and exertion and miserable business which God has given to the sons of men with which to exercise and busy themselves. [11] He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men's hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. [12] I know that there is nothing better for them than to be glad and to get and do good as long as they live; [13] And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor-it is the gift of God. [14] I know that whatever God does, it endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it. And God does it so that men will [reverently] fear Him [revere and worship Him, knowing that He is]. [15] That which is now already has been, and that which is to be already has been; and God seeks that which has passed by [so that history repeats itself]. [16] Moreover, I saw under the sun that in the place of justice there was wickedness, and that in the place of righteousness wickedness was there also. [17] I said in my heart, God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time [appointed] for every matter and purpose and for every work. [18] I said in my heart regarding the subject of the sons of men, God is trying (separating and sifting) them, that they may see that by themselves [under the sun, without God] they are but like beasts. [19] For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even [in the end] one thing befalls them both. As the one dies, so dies the other. Yes, they all have one breath and spirit, so that a man has no preeminence over a beast; for all is vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility)! [20] All go to one place; all are of 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] So I saw 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 back to see what will happen after he is gone?