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- ¶ TO everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the sun:
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- A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
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- A time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to tear down and a time to build up;
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- A time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;
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- A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
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- A time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to tie up and a time to untie;
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- A time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
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- A time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
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- What profit has the worker in his labor?
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- I have seen the toil which the LORD has given to the sons of men to be engaged therewith.
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- ¶ He has made everything beautiful in its time;
also he has made the world dear to man’s heart, so that no man can find out the works which the LORD has done from the beginning to the end.
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- I know that there is no good in worldly things, but for men to rejoice and to do good in their lives.
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- And also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor;
it is the gift of the LORD.
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- I know that whatsoever the LORD does, it shall be for ever;
nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it; and the LORD has so made it that men should reverence him.
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- That which is now, already has been;
and that which is to be, has already been; and God will avenge him who has been persecuted.
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- ¶ And moreover, I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there;
and in the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
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- I said in my heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked;
for there is a time for every purpose and for every work.
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- I meditated in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men whom God had created, and saw that they are like beasts.
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- For the same misfortune which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts;
even one misfortune befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that man has no preeminence over the beast; for all is vanity.
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- All go to one place;
all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
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- Who knows whether the spirit of men goes upward and the spirit of the beasts goes downward under the earth?
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- Wherefore I saw that there is nothing better in them but that man should rejoice in his works;
for that is his portion; for who shall bring him to see what shall be after him?
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