A Time for Everything
Ecclesiastes 3 New Living Translation (NLT)
1 For
everything there is a season,
a
time for every activity under heaven.
2 A
time to be born and a time to die.
A
time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A
time to kill and a time to heal.
A
time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A
time to cry and a time to laugh.
A
time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A
time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A
time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A
time to search and a time to quit searching.
A
time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A
time to tear and a time to mend.
A
time to be quiet 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
do people really get for all their hard work?
10 I
have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
11 Yet
God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in
the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work
from beginning to end.
12 So
I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as
long as we can.
13 And
people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are
gifts from God.
14 And
I know that whatever God does is final. Nothing can be added to it or taken
from it. God’s purpose is that people should fear him.
15 What
is happening now has happened before, and what will happen in the future has
happened before, because God makes the same things happen over and over again.
The Injustices of Life
16 I
also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the
courts of law are corrupt!
17 I
said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for
all their deeds.”
18 I
also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are
like animals.
19 For
people and animals share the same fate—both breathe[a] and
both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How
meaningless!
20 Both
go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
21 For
who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down
into the earth?
22 So
I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work.
That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after
we die.
Footnotes:
a. 3:19 Or both have the same spirit.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ecclesiastes+3
No comments:
Post a Comment