Ecclesiastes 11

Send your bread out across the water, because after many days you will find it again.

1Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

Note"Cast your bread upon the waters" is a proverb whose original point is debated. It may picture the overseas grain trade (cargo sent out by ship at risk, with any return coming only after a long voyage) or it may simply picture giving something away where you cannot follow it. In either reading the phrase describes releasing something without a guaranteed or visible return.

2Divide your portion among seven, or even eight, because you do not know what disaster may come on the land.

2Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.

Note"Seven, or even eight" is a standard Hebrew way of counting that names a number and then goes one higher (as in "three things... four" elsewhere in the Old Testament). It means "many, and then some more" rather than an exact tally; the point is dividing what you have into a number of separate shares.

3When the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves out on the earth. And whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, it stays in the place where it falls.

3If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.

4Whoever keeps watching the wind will never plant. Whoever keeps staring at the clouds will never harvest.

4He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.

NoteSeed was scattered by hand across an open field, so a gusty day blew it where the sower did not want it; cutting and threshing grain needed settled dry weather. A farmer who waited for perfect conditions on both counts would never get either job done.

5You do not know which way the wind goes, and you do not know how a baby's bones grow inside its mother. In the same way, you cannot understand the work of God, who makes everything.

5As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

NoteThe Hebrew word here, *ruach*, means "wind," "breath" and "spirit" all at once. The King James chose "spirit" and most modern translations choose "wind," and the verse may be holding both together: the moving air you cannot trace, and the life-breath in an unborn child. Ancient readers had no way to observe how a body forms in the womb, which is the force of the comparison.

6Plant your seed in the morning, and in the evening do not let your hands rest, because you do not know which planting will do well, this one or that one, or whether both will turn out equally good.

6In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

7Light really is sweet, and it is a pleasure for the eyes to see the sun.

7Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun:

Note"To see the sun" is a set phrase used repeatedly in Ecclesiastes to mean simply being alive. "Light is sweet" is praise of daily existence itself, not of anything the light shows.

8So if a person lives many years, let him be glad in all of them. But let him remember the days of darkness, because there will be many of them. Everything still to come passes away like a breath.

8But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.

Note"Days of darkness" is the opposite of "seeing the sun" in the previous verse, the time when a person is no longer alive; some readers take it more narrowly as the bleak days of old age. The word behind "vanity" in the King James, and "passes away like a breath" here, is *hebel*: literally a puff of breath or vapor. It describes something thin, fleeting and impossible to grip, and it is the recurring keyword of the whole book.

9Be glad, young man, while you are young. Let your heart make you happy in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and follow what your eyes see, but know this: God will bring you into judgment for all of it.

9Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.

NoteIn Hebrew the "heart" is the seat of thinking, wanting and deciding, not only of feeling; "the ways of your heart" means what you have chosen and set your mind on. The pairing of heart and eyes as guides is also the exact pair used as a warning in Numbers 15:39, so the phrasing would have sounded pointed to an ancient hearer. "Judgment" here translates a legal word: being brought before a court and required to give an account.

10So put worry out of your heart, and keep trouble away from your body, because childhood and the strength of youth pass quickly away.

10Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.

NoteIn 1611 English "evil" often meant harm, trouble or physical pain rather than wickedness, which is its sense here, the Hebrew means what is bad for the body. The second word in "childhood and youth" is unusual: it means "blackness," most likely black hair, and so the prime of life before it greys; some translators instead take it as the dawn or morning of life.