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The Blue Letter Bible

Ecclesiastes 3 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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A Time for Everything
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:1 - For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:2 - A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:3 - A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:4 - A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:5 - A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:6 - A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:7 - A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:8 - A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:9 - What do people really get for all their hard work?
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:10 - I have seen the burden God has placed on us all.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:11 - 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:12 - So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:13 - And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:14 - 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:15 - 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
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:16 - I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt!
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:17 - I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:18 - I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:19 - For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe[fn] and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:20 - Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust.
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:21 - For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?
Unchecked Copy BoxEcc 3:22 - So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why we are here! No one will bring us back from death to enjoy life after we die.
NLT Footnotes
Or both have the same spirit.
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 — Additional Translations: