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New International Version |   | |
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| | Ecc 3:1 | There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
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| | Ecc 3:2 | a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
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| | Ecc 3:3 | a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
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| | Ecc 3:4 | a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
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| | Ecc 3:5 | a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
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| | Ecc 3:6 | a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
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| | Ecc 3:7 | a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
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| | Ecc 3:8 | a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
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| | Ecc 3:9 | What does the worker gain from his toil?
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| | Ecc 3:10 | I have seen the burden God has laid on men.
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| | Ecc 3:11 | He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
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| | Ecc 3:12 | I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.
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| | Ecc 3:13 | That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil--this is the gift of God.
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| | Ecc 3:14 | I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.
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| | Ecc 3:15 | Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.
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| | Ecc 3:16 | And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment--wickedness was there, in the place of justice--wickedness was there.
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| | Ecc 3:17 | I thought in my heart, "God will bring to judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time for every deed."
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| | Ecc 3:18 | I also thought, "As for men, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.
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| | Ecc 3:19 | Man's fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath ; man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless.
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| | Ecc 3:20 | All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.
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| | Ecc 3:21 | Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?"
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| | Ecc 3:22 | So I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to enjoy his work, because that is his lot. For who can bring him to see what will happen after him?
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