The Problem of Retribution, Ecclesiastes 3:16-22

16 And still under the sun in the judgment place, I saw wickedness, and in the seat of justice, inequity.

17 And I said to myself, both the just and the wicked God will judge, since there is a time for every affair and on every work a judgment.

18 I said to myself: as for the children of men, it is God‘s way of testing them, and of showing that they are in themselves like beasts.

19 For the lot of man and of beast is one lot; the one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life-breath, and man has no advantage over the beast; but all is vanity.

20 Both go to the same place; but we’re made from the dust, and to the dust they both return.

21 Who knows if the life-breath of the children of men goes upward and the life-breath of beasts go earthward?

22 And I saw that there is nothing better for a man than to rejoice in his work; for this is his lot. Who will let him see what is to come after him?