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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Ecclesiastes 3 NLT</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/ecclesiastes/3.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/ecclesiastes/3-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NLT</a> > Ecclesiastes 3</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../ecclesiastes/2.htm" title="Ecclesiastes 2">◄</a> Ecclesiastes 3 <a href="../ecclesiastes/4.htm" title="Ecclesiastes 4">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Living Translation</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/nlt/esv/ecclesiastes/3.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="hdg">A Time for Everything</p><p class="line1"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>For everything there is a season,</p><p class="line2">a time for every activity under heaven.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>A time to be born and a time to die.</p><p class="line2">A time to plant and a time to harvest.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>A time to kill and a time to heal.</p><p class="line2">A time to tear down and a time to build up.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>A time to cry and a time to laugh.</p><p class="line2">A time to grieve and a time to dance.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.</p><p class="line2">A time to embrace and a time to turn away.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>A time to search and a time to quit searching.</p><p class="line2">A time to keep and a time to throw away.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>A time to tear and a time to mend.</p><p class="line2">A time to be quiet and a time to speak.</p><p class="line1"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>A time to love and a time to hate.</p><p class="line2">A time for war and a time for peace.</p><p class="b"/><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>What do people really get for all their hard work? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>Yet 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>And 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>What 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.</p><p class="hdg">The Injustices of Life</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt! <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”</p><p class="reg"> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>I also thought about the human condition—how God proves to people that they are like animals. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>For people and animals share the same fate—both breathe<a href="#footnotes"><span class="fn">a</span></a> and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless! <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>Both go to the same place—they came from dust and they return to dust. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/3-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>So 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.</p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="fn">a</span><note caller="+" style="f"><span class="fr">3:19 </span><span class="ft">Or </span><span class="it">both have the same spirit.</span><br></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><em>Holy Bible</em>, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of <a href="http://www.tyndale.com">Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.</a>, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. 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