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          DASV: Ecclesiastes 3    

1 For everything there is a season,
    and a time for every matter under heaven:
2 a time to be born,
     and a time to die;
    a time to plant,
         and a time to pull up what has been planted;
3 a time to kill,
         and a time to heal;
    a time to break down,
         and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep,
         and a time to laugh;
    a time to mourn,
         and a time to dance;
5 a time to scatter stones,
         and a time to gather stones;
    a time to embrace,
         and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek,
         and a time to give up searching;
    a time to keep,
         and a time to throw away;
7 a time to tear,
         and a time to sew;
    a time to be silent,
         and a time to speak;
8 a time to love,
         and a time to hate;
    a time for war,
         and a time for peace.

9 What does a worker really gain from all his toil?
10 I have seen the burden God has given to humanity
to be busy about.
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time,
he has put eternity in their heart, yet people cannot
fathom the work that God has done from the beginning
even to the end.
12 I know that there is nothing better for them than to
be happy, and to enjoy themselves as long as they live,
13 and also that everyone should eat and drink, and find
enjoyment in all his labor, for this is the gift of God. 14 I know that whatever God does will last forever; nothing
can be added to it, nor can anything be taken away from it.
God has done this so that humans will fear him.

15 Whatever is has already been;
     so also whatever will be has already been;
for God will seek to do again what has already happened before.
16 Furthermore, I observed under the sun:
     in the place of justice,
          wickedness was there;
     in the place of righteousness,
     wickedness was there.
17 I said in my heart,
"God will judge the righteous and the wicked;
for there is a time of accounting for every matter and
for every deed."

18 I said in my heart, "With regard to human beings, God tests
them to prove to them that they are like the animals."
19 For that which happens to humans also happens to the animals;
the same thing happens to both; as the one dies, so the other
dies; they both have the same breath. Humans have no
advantage over the animals; for all is futile.
20 All go to the same place; all come from the dust,
and all return to dust.
21 Who knows if the human spirit goes upward, and the spirit
of the animals goes downward into the earth?
22 So I realized that there is nothing better, than that a
person should rejoice in his work; for that is his lot.
Who can show him what the future will be after he is gone?

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