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The Uncertainties of Life

11 Send your grain across the seas,
    and in time, profits will flow back to you.[a]
But divide your investments among many places,[b]
    for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.

When clouds are heavy, the rains come down.
    Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.

Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.
    If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.

Just as you cannot understand the path of the wind or the mystery of a tiny baby growing in its mother’s womb,[c] so you cannot understand the activity of God, who does all things.

Plant your seed in the morning and keep busy all afternoon, for you don’t know if profit will come from one activity or another—or maybe both.

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Footnotes

  1. 11:1 Or Give generously, / for your gifts will return to you later. Hebrew reads Throw your bread on the waters, / for after many days you will find it again.
  2. 11:2 Hebrew among seven or even eight.
  3. 11:5 Some manuscripts read Just as you cannot understand how breath comes to a tiny baby in its mother’s womb.

Invest in Many Ventures

11 Ship(A) your grain across the sea;
    after many days you may receive a return.(B)
Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight;
    you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

If clouds are full of water,
    they pour rain on the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
    in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
    whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the path of the wind,(C)
    or how the body is formed[a] in a mother’s womb,(D)
so you cannot understand the work of God,
    the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning,
    and at evening let your hands not be idle,(E)
for you do not know which will succeed,
    whether this or that,
    or whether both will do equally well.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 11:5 Or know how life (or the spirit) / enters the body being formed