For everything there [is] an appointed time, a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to bear and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to root up [what is] planted;

a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to break down and a time to build up;

a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance;

a time to throw away stones and a time to gather stones; a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek and a time to lose; a time to keep and a time to throw away;

a time to tear and a time to sew; a time to be silent and a time to speak;

a time to love and a time to hate; a time [for] war and a time [for] peace.

He has made everything suitable in its time. He also has put {the past} in their hearts, yet no one can grasp what God does from the beginning to the end.

So I said {to myself}, "God will surely judge the righteous and the wicked, for he has appointed a time [of judgment] for every deed and every work."

Even if a man fathers a hundred [children] and lives many years so that the days of his years are many, if his heart is not satisfied with {his prosperity} and {he does not receive a proper burial}, I deem the stillborn better than him.

Do not act excessively wicked, and do not be a fool, lest you die before your time.

Whoever obeys [his] command will not suffer disaster. The wise mind knows the [proper] time and the right [procedure].

For there is a [proper] time and right [procedure] for every matter, even though the trouble of man [weighs] heavy upon him.

Just as no one can control the wind to restrain the wind, so also no one can control the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not deliver the wicked.

I looked again and saw under the sun that the race [does] not [belong] to the swift, the battle [does] not [belong] to the mighty, food [does] not [belong] to the wise, wealth [does] not [belong] to the intelligent, and success [does] not [belong] to the skillful, for time and chance befalls all of them.

For man does not know his time. Just as fish are caught in a cruel net and like birds who are seized in a snare, so also {humans} are ensnared at a cruel time when it falls suddenly upon them.

Blessed are you, O land, when your king is a son of nobility and your princes feast at the proper time-- to gain strength and not to get drunk.