Ecclesiastes 3:9-22

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

The God-Given Task

⁹ What gain have the workers from their toil?^{(A) 10} I have seen the business that God has given to everyone to be busy with.^{(B) 11} He has made everything suitable for its time; moreover, he has put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.^{(C) 12} I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³ moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil. ¹⁴ I know that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything taken from it; God has done this so that all should stand in awe before him.^{(D) 15} That which is already has been, that which is to be already is, and God seeks out what has gone by.^[a](E)

Judgment and the Future Belong to God

¹⁶ Moreover, I saw under the sun that, in the place of justice, wickedness was there, and in the place of righteousness, wickedness was there as well. ¹⁷ I said to myself, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time for every matter and for every work.”^{(F) 18} I said to myself with regard to humans that God is testing^[b] them to show that they are but animals.^{(G) 19} For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity.^{(H) 20} All go to one place, all are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.^{(I) 21} Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?^{(J) 22} So I saw that there is nothing better than that all should enjoy their work, for that is their lot; who can bring them to see what will be after them?^(K)