| New Living Translation | NET Bible |
| 1For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. | 1For everything there is an appointed time, and an appropriate time for every activity on earth: |
| 2A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest. | 2A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot what was planted; |
| 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 cry and a time to laugh. A time to grieve 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 scatter stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to turn away. | 5A time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; |
| 6A time to search and a time to quit searching. A time to keep and a time to throw away. | 6A time to search, and a time to give something up as lost; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; |
| 7A time to tear and a time to mend. A time to be quiet and a time to speak. | 7A time to rip, and a time to sew; a time to keep silent, 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 people really get for all their hard work? | 9What benefit can a worker gain from his toil? |
| 10I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. | 10I have observed the burden that God has given to people to keep them occupied. |
| 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. | 11God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives. |
| 12So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. | 12I have concluded that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to enjoy themselves as long as they live, |
| 13And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. | 13and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find enjoyment in all his toil, for these things are a gift from God. |
| 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. | 14I also know that whatever God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken away from it. God has made it this way, so that men will fear him. |
| 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 | 15Whatever exists now has already been, and whatever will be has already been; for God will seek to do again what has occurred in the past. |
| 16I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! | 16I saw something else on earth: In the place of justice, there was wickedness, and in the place of fairness, there was wickedness. |
| 17I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.” | 17I thought to myself, "God will judge both the righteous and the wicked; for there is an appropriate time for every activity, and there is a time of judgment for every deed. |
| 18I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. | 18I also thought to myself, "It is for the sake of people, so God can clearly show them that they are like animals. |
| 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! | 19For the fate of humans and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath. There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting. |
| 20Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. | 20Both go to the same place, both come from the dust, and to dust both return. |
| 21For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? | 21Who really knows if the human spirit ascends upward, and the animal's spirit descends into the earth? |
| 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. | 22So I perceived there is nothing better than for people to enjoy their work, because that is their reward; for who can show them what the future holds? |
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