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Ecclesiastes 3, RSV

3:1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

3:2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

3:3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

3:4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

3:5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

3:6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

3:7 a time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

3:8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

3:9 What gain has the worker from his toil?

3:10 I have seen the business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with.

3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

3:12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live;

3:13 also that it is God's gift to man that every one should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil.

3:14 I know that whatever God does endures for ever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it; God has made it so, in order that men should fear before him.

3:15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

3:16 Moreover I saw under the sun that in the place of justice, even there was wickedness, and in the place of righteousness, even there was wickedness.

3:17 I 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.

3:18 I said in my heart with regard to the sons of men that God is testing them to show them that they are but beasts.

3:19 For the fate of the sons of men and the fate of beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts; for all is vanity.

3:20 All go to one place; all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.

3:21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth?

3:22 So I saw that there is nothing better than that a man should enjoy his work, for that is his lot; who can bring him to see what will be after him?

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