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Ecclesiastes 3

3 There is a fixed moment at which everything in this life happens, and a determined period for every kind of event that happens during a person’s life:

2 People will give birth, and people will die;

people will plant their crops, and people will reap and harvest those crops.

3 People will kill people, and people will heal people;

people will tear structures down, and people will build structures.

4 People will cry, and people will laugh;

people will grieve, and people will celebrate.

5 People will throw rocks, and people will gather rocks;

people will hug, and people will refuse to hug.

6 People will look for lost things, and people will lose found things;

people will store things, and people will throw things away.

7 People will rip their clothing in grief, and people will sew clothing back together;

people will stay quiet, and people will talk.

8 People will love one another, and people will hate one another;

people will go to war, and people will mediate peace.

9 Again, I want to know whether the never-ending, difficult labor of human life ever produces any sense of satisfaction or joy for hard-working people that makes the difficulty worthwhile.

10 I have observed the job of living in which God has employed every human being to bustle about doing. 11 God makes everything that happens in a person's life beautifully fitted for the moment that God has determined for it. And, at the same time, God enables humanity to perceive that he is at work in their lives. Even so, God does not allow humanity to completely understand everything that God does—from the time that he created this world and began governing it to the point at which he brings all things to an end. 12 In light of this, I confess that the best way for humanity to live is to gratefully celebrate life and to live ethically while one is alive. 13 And, furthermore, whenever a person is able merely to enjoy whatever they have to eat and drink, and to find something gratifying in the work that they do, this is a priceless thing that God has enabled, like a present that he gives to humanity sometimes. 14 I also confess that all of God’s decisions are fixed, enduring, and unchangeable. It is like people say:

No one can improve what God does,

either by addition or subtraction.

15 Current events are not new.

Something like things happening now inevitably already happened in the past.

Likewise, future events will not be new.

Something like the things that will happen in the future are already happening now.

Despite all of this, God is the one who truly understands what every person is trying desperately to understand.

16 However, here is something else that I observed: The very places in society from which people expect rulers to make just, fair, and equitable decisions are frequently places in which rulers make unjust, oppressive, and sinful decisions! 17 When I observed this, I confessed to myself, “God will hold accountable both people who make fair and equitable decisions and those who make unjust, oppressive, and sinful decisions. He will do this because he has determined that there is a determined moment for everything that happens during a person’s life, including God's judgment of the decisions of rulers in those places.”

18 This led me to confess further to myself: “God is governing the world this way because he wants people to clearly understand that they are really no different than animals.” 19 After all, human lives and animal lives end in precisely the same way. People die just like animals die, and they seem to possess the same capacity to die. Because of this, it appears that being human offers no substantial benefit over being an animal. All life is as fleeting and insubstantial as the fading mist of my breath. 20 When people and animals die, people bury both in the ground. Both people and animals are as mortal as if God made them from dirt, and when each dies, their dead bodies become dirt once again. 21 This commonality causes me to wonder whether people are correct in their assumptions about what happens to people when they die. Perhaps, humans ascend to the place in which God lives, and only animals descend into wherever other dead things lie in the ground.
22 So I confess, once again, that the best way for people to live is to allow themselves to enjoy what their hard work produces— even the difficult work itself. This is because God has given each person their work for that day. It is their daily allotment—no more, no less. After all, nobody can really know for sure what will happen to them tomorrow.

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