1. There is a given time for everything and a time for every happening under heaven:

2. A time for giving birth, a time for dying; a time for planting, a time for uprooting.

3. A time for killing, a time for healing; a time for knocking down, a time for building.

4. A time for tears, a time for laughter; a time for mourning, a time for dancing.

5. A time for throwing stones, a time for gathering stones; a time for embracing, a time to refrain from embracing.

6. A time for searching, a time for losing; a time for keeping, a time for throwing away.

7. A time for tearing, a time for sewing: a time to be silent and a time to speak.

8. A time for loving, a time for hating; a time for war, a time for peace.

9. What profit is there for a man from all his toils?

10. Finally I considered the task God gave to the sons of men.

11. He made everything fitting in its time, but he also set eternity in their hearts, although man is not able to embrace the work of God from the beginning to the end.

12. I know that there is nothing better for him to do than to seek pleasure and well-being during his life.

13. To eat, drink and find satisfaction in his work is a gift from God.

14. I know that everything God does remains forever; there is nothing to add, nothing to take from it. Yet God has ordained that men fear him.

15. What has happened comes again; what is now has already been; God recovers what has gone.

16. I have also seen under the sun, instead of justice, wickedness, and in the place of the just, the wicked.

17. And I said to myself, "God will judge the just and the wicked for there is a time for everything, and a judgment for every deed."

18. I also thought about men, how God wants to test them and let them see that they themselves are animals.

19. For the destiny of man and animal is identical: death for one as for the other.

20. Both have the same spirit; man has no superiority over animals for all pass away like wind. Both go to the same place, both come from dust and return to dust.

21. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the beast descends earthward?

22. I understood that the best man can do is to be happy in what he does, for that is his lot. For who will take him to see the beyond?





“A caridade é o metro com o qual o Senhor nos julgará.” São Padre Pio de Pietrelcina