The Message Bible MSG
New Living Translation NLT
1 There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth:
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For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven.
2 A right time for birth and another for death, A right time to plant and another to reap,
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A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest.
3 A right time to kill and another to heal, A right time to destroy and another to construct,
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A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up.
4 A right time to cry and another to laugh, A right time to lament and another to cheer,
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A time to cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance.
5 A right time to make love and another to abstain, A right time to embrace and another to part,
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A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
6 A right time to search and another to count your losses, A right time to hold on and another to let go,
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A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away.
7 A right time to rip out and another to mend, A right time to shut up and another to speak up,
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A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
8 A right time to love and another to hate, A right time to wage war and another to make peace.
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A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
9 But in the end, does it really make a difference what anyone does?
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What do people really get for all their hard work?
10 I've had a good look at what God has given us to do - busywork, mostly.
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I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
11 True, God made everything beautiful in itself and in its time - but he's left us in the dark, so we can never know what God is up to, whether he's coming or going.
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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 I've decided that there's nothing better to do than go ahead and have a good time and get the most we can out of life.
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So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.
13 That's it - eat, drink, and make the most of your job. It's God's gift.
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And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
14 I've also concluded that whatever God does, that's the way it's going to be, always. No addition, no subtraction. God's done it and that's it. That's so we'll quit asking questions and simply worship in holy fear.
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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 Whatever was, is. Whatever will be, is. That's how it always is with God.
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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.
16 I took another good look at what's going on: The very place of judgment - corrupt!
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I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt!
17 The place of righteousness - corrupt! I said to myself, "God will judge righteous and wicked." There's a right time for every thing, every deed - and there's no getting around it.
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I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
18 I said to myself regarding the human race, "God's testing the lot of us, showing us up as nothing but animals."
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I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals.
19 Humans and animals come to the same end - humans die, animals die. We all breathe the same air. So there's really no advantage in being human. None. Everything's smoke.
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For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!
20 We all end up in the same place - we all came from dust, we all end up as dust.
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Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
21 Nobody knows for sure that the human spirit rises to heaven or that the animal spirit sinks into the earth.
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For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?
22 So I made up my mind that there's nothing better for us men and women than to have a good time in whatever we do - that's our lot. Who knows if there's anything else to life?
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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.