---
title: Ecclesiastes 3:12
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/ecclesiastes-3-12/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/ecclesiastes-3-12.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Ecclesiastes 3:12
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Ecclesiastes 3:12

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and do good while they live,

## JW Usage

The Watchtower cites Ecclesiastes 3:12 — "I have come to know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good during their life" — as permission for "wholesome gatherings" of family and friends *other than* birthdays. JWs hold weddings, anniversaries, graduations, and congregational social events without difficulty; only birthdays specifically are forbidden (Reasoning From the Scriptures pp. 68-70).

## Protestant Usage

Ecclesiastes 3:12 blesses joy and doing good across the whole of life, without qualification. The Watchtower permits celebratory gatherings generally and then singles out one day each year — the day a person was born — and forbids only that. The asymmetry is the problem. Jeremiah 20:14 ("cursed be the day I was born") and Job 3:1 ("Job cursed his day") both presuppose that the day of birth was normally *blessed* — you cannot wish a day unblessed unless blessing it was the custom. Luke 1:14 prophesies that at John the Baptist's birth "many will rejoice." Ecclesiastes 3:12 is perfectly at home with all three. And Romans 14:5-6 — even in the NWT — explicitly permits a Christian to observe a day "to Jehovah" while another Christian treats every day alike, with both acceptable. Ecclesiastes 3:12's "rejoice and do good" covers ordinary family celebration of ordinary human milestones, including birth. The Watchtower's specific birthday ban is a rule added where Scripture does not add it.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Birthday Ban — A Rule Generalised From Two Pagan Tyrants](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/birthday-ban-extrabiblical-canon.md) — Romans 14:5-6 / Jeremiah 20:14 / Job 3:1 [Practice]