Ecclesiastes 11:1-10

11 * Let your bread go out over the water, for in the long run you will find it. 2  Give share to seven and even to eight, because you do not know what there will be of disaster on the earth. 3 * If the clouds get full of a shower they empty it out on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south, or if toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will be. 4  One who watches the wind will not sow, and one who views the clouds will not reap. 5 * As you do not know what is the course of the spirit into bones in the body of the pregnant woman, so you will not know the working of God who works everything. 6  In the morning sow your seed and at evening do not rest your hand, because you do not know which will do right, whether this or that or both of them alike will be good. 7  And the light is sweet, and it does the eyes good to see the sun; 8  for if man lives many years he is to be merry in all of them. But he is to remember the days of darkness will be many. All that is coming will be nonsense. 9  Make merry in your boyhood, young man, and let your heart give you a good time in your days of youth, and go by the bents of your heart and the sights of your eyes; but know that as to all these things God will bring you under judgment, 10 * and keep your heart out of the way of remorse and your flesh free from harm; for boyhood and prime are nonsense.

Footnotes

11:1 Lit. for in the manyness of the days you will
11:3 Lit. on the south, or if on the north
11:5 Var. what is the wind’s course, as with bones
11:10 Lit. and bring remorse (or vexation or annoyance) away from your heart, and evil past your flesh