For everything there is a time
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To everything—a season, and a time to every delight under the heavens:
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A time to bring forth, || And a time to die. A time to plant, || And a time to eradicate the planted.
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A time to slay, || And a time to heal, || A time to break down, || And a time to build up.
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A time to weep, || And a time to laugh. A time to mourn, || And a time to skip.
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A time to cast away stones, || And a time to heap up stones. A time to embrace, || And a time to be far from embracing.
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A time to seek, || And a time to destroy. A time to keep, || And a time to cast away.
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A time to tear, || And a time to sew. A time to be silent, || And a time to speak.
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A time to love, || And a time to hate. A time of war, || And a time of peace.
God's works are eternal
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What advantage does the doer have in that which he is laboring at?
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I have seen the travail that God has given to the sons of man to be humbled by it.
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The whole He has made beautiful in its season; also, that knowledge He has put in their heart without which man does not find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.
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I have known that there is no good for them except to rejoice and to do good during their life,
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indeed, even every man who eats and has drunk and seen good by all his labor, it [is] a gift of God.
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I have known that all that God does is for all time, to it nothing is to be added, and from it nothing is to be withdrawn; and God has worked that they fear before Him.
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What is that which has been? Already it is, and that which [is] to be has already been, and God requires that which is pursued.
From dust to dust
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And again, I have seen under the sun the place of judgment—there [is] the wicked; and the place of righteousness—there [is] the wicked.
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I said in my heart, “The righteous and the wicked God judges, for a time [is] to every matter and for every work there.”
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I said in my heart concerning the matter of the sons of man that God might cleanse them, so as to see that they themselves [are] beasts.
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For an event [is to] the sons of man, and an event [is to] the beasts, even one event [is] to them; as the death of this, so [is] the death of that; and one spirit [is] to all, and the advantage of man above the beast is nothing, for the whole [is] vanity.
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The whole are going to one place, the whole have been from the dust, and the whole are turning back to the dust.
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Who knows the spirit of the sons of man that is going up on high, and the spirit of the beast that is going down below to the earth?
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And I have seen that there is nothing better than that man rejoice in his works, for it [is] his portion; for who brings him to look on that which is after him?
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