| New International Version | New Living Translation |
| 1There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: | 1For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. |
| 2a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, | 2A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. |
| 3a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, | 3A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear 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 cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve and a time to dance. |
| 5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, | 5A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. |
| 6a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, | 6A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. |
| 7a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, | 7A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. |
| 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 for war and a time for peace. |
| 9What do workers gain from their toil? | 9What do people really get for all their hard work? |
| 10I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. | 10I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. |
| 11He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. | 11Yet 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. |
| 12I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. | 12So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. |
| 13That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil--this is the gift of God. | 13And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. |
| 14I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him. | 14And 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. |
| 15Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account. | 15What 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 |
| 16And I saw something else under the sun: In the place of judgment--wickedness was there, in the place of justice--wickedness was there. | 16I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! |
| 17I said to myself, "God will bring into judgment both the righteous and the wicked, for there will be a time for every activity, a time to judge every deed." | 17I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.” |
| 18I also said to myself, "As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. | 18I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. |
| 19Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. | 19For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! |
| 20All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return. | 20Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. |
| 21Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?" | 21For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? |
| 22So I saw that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy their work, because that is their lot. For who can bring them to see what will happen after them? | 22So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is our lot in life. And no one can bring us back to see what happens after we die. |
| New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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