New International Version

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yeta no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

11

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.

12

I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

12

So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.

13

That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil — this is the gift of God.

13

And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

14

I 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.

14

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.

15

Whatever is has already been,
and what will be has been before;
and God will call the past to account.b

15

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.

16

And I saw something else under the sun:
In the place of judgment — wickedness was there,
in the place of justice — wickedness was there.

16

The Injustices of Life

I also noticed that under the sun there is evil in the courtroom. Yes, even the courts of law are corrupt!

17

I 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.”

17

I said to myself, “In due season God will judge everyone, both good and bad, for all their deeds.”

18

I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals.

18

I also thought about the human condition — how God proves to people that they are like animals.

19

Surely 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 breathc; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless.

19

For people and animals share the same fate — both breathea and both must die. So people have no real advantage over the animals. How meaningless!

20

All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.

20

Both go to the same place — they came from dust and they return to dust.

21

Who knows if the human spirit rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

21

For who can prove that the human spirit goes up and the spirit of animals goes down into the earth?

22

So 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?

22

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.

Parallel

New International Version

New Living Translation

Ecclesiastes 3

Ecclesiastes 3