Ecclesiastes 3

There is a season for everything, and a time for every activity under the sky.

1To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Note"Under the sky" (in some verses "under the sun") is this book's standing phrase for the world of ordinary human life and experience, as opposed to what lies beyond it. The word rendered "activity" or "purpose" originally meant something one delights in or wants, and by the time this book was written had widened to mean any matter, affair or piece of business.

2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pull up what was planted;

2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

NoteThe Hebrew of the first line is literally "a time to give birth," though it is commonly and defensibly read as "a time to be born." "Pull up what was planted" is agricultural: uprooting a crop, not weeding.

3a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build up;

3A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

4A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5a time to throw stones away, and a time to gather stones together; a time to hold someone close, and a time to hold back from it;

5A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

NoteNobody knows for certain what throwing and gathering stones referred to. The usual suggestions are clearing a field of stones before planting and collecting stones for building, or scattering stones over an enemy's field to ruin it. Some ancient Jewish readers took the whole verse, both halves together, as a veiled reference to times for sexual intimacy and times for abstaining, since "embrace" can carry that sense.

6a time to search for something, and a time to give it up as lost; a time to keep, and a time to throw away;

6A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7a time to tear cloth, and a time to sew it; a time to stay silent, and a time to speak;

7A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

NoteTearing one's clothes was the standard public gesture of grief or shock in this culture, and the torn garment would be sewn up again when the period of mourning ended. So the pair is not about laundry but about the beginning and end of mourning.

8a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

8A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9So what does a worker gain from all the effort he puts in?

9What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

Note"Gain" translates a word borrowed from commerce, the surplus or profit left over after the accounting is done. It runs through the whole book as the question of what, if anything, is left in a person's hand at the end.

10I have seen the hard task that God has handed to people to keep them busy.

10I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

Note"Sons of men," a Hebrew idiom for human beings in general, lies behind "people" here and in verses 18, 19 and 21. It carries no emphasis on males.

11He has made everything beautiful in its own time. He has also placed the whole stretch of time in their hearts, yet no one can figure out what God has done from beginning to end.

11He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

NoteTwo words are disputed here. "Beautiful" also means fitting or appropriate, made everything suit its own moment. And the phrase rendered "the whole stretch of time" translates a Hebrew word that elsewhere means a very long or unbounded span of time; ancient and modern readers have variously understood it as "eternity," "the ages," "the world," and even (from a similar-looking root) "what is hidden." The rendering keeps the temporal sense, but the word is genuinely uncertain.

12I know there is nothing better for people than to be glad and to do good while they live.

12I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

NoteThe phrase translated "do good" can mean either acting well toward others or, as an idiom, faring well and enjoying oneself. Both readings are defensible here.

13I also know that when anyone eats and drinks and finds good in all his work, that is a gift from God.

13And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

14I know that whatever God does lasts forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken away from it. God does this so that people will fear him.

14I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Note"Fear" in Hebrew covers a range from terror to awed respect, and is the ordinary word for the reverence owed to God; it does not necessarily imply being frightened.

15What exists now has already been before, and what is coming has already been. God seeks out what has already gone by.

15That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.

NoteThe last clause is famously obscure. The Hebrew says roughly "God seeks what is pursued" or "what has been driven away." It has been understood as God calling the past to account, as God recalling or bringing back what has already gone by, and as God seeking out the persecuted. The rendering keeps the wording open.

16I also saw this on the earth: in the place where justice should be, there was wickedness; and in the place where right should be, there was wrong.

16And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

Note"The place where justice should be" means the law court. In this period cases were heard by elders in the open space just inside the town gate, so it was a specific, physical place a reader would picture.

17I said to myself, "God will judge the righteous person and the wicked person, because there is a time for every purpose and for every deed."

17I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.

18I said to myself about people: God is testing them, so they can see for themselves that they are only animals.

18I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

19What happens to people happens to animals; the same thing happens to both. As one dies, so does the other. They all have the same breath. A person has no advantage over an animal. It is all fleeting.

19For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.

Note"Breath" here translates a Hebrew word that also means wind and spirit, the same word rendered "spirit" in verse 21. The argument depends on that overlap: people and animals draw the same breath. "Fleeting" translates the book's key word, which literally means a vapor or puff of breath, and is rendered "vanity" in older Bibles. It suggests something insubstantial and quickly gone rather than something worthless.

20All go to the same place. All came from dust, and all go back to dust.

20All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

Note"Dust" is the loose dry earth of the ground. The line deliberately echoes the words spoken to Adam in Genesis 3:19, "dust you are, and to dust you shall return."

21Who knows the human spirit, whether it rises upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes down into the earth?

21Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

NoteThe Hebrew can be pointed and read two ways, and the ancient versions split on it: either as a question about whether the human spirit really does go up and the animal's down, or as a statement ("who knows the spirit of man, which goes upward") assuming that it does. The rendering preserves the question because the underlying text allows both.

22So I see there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy his own work, because that is his share. For who can bring him to see what will happen after he is gone?

22Wherefore I perceive that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?

Note"Share" translates the word used for the portion of land allotted to a family or the helping of food set before a guest, what has been assigned to a person as theirs. The last clause is also ambiguous: "what will happen after him" may mean after his death, or simply later in time, among those who come after him.