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Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
New Living Translation
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
New Living Translation
The Uncertainties of Life
11 Send your grain across the seas,
and in time, profits will flow back to you.[a]
2 But divide your investments among many places,[b]
for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.
3 When clouds are heavy, the rains come down.
Whether a tree falls north or south, it stays where it falls.
4 Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant.
If they watch every cloud, they never harvest.
5 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.
6 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.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 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.
- 11:2 Hebrew among seven or even eight.
- 11:5 Some manuscripts read Just as you cannot understand how breath comes to a tiny baby in its mother’s womb.
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
New International Version
Invest in Many Ventures
11 Ship(A) your grain across the sea;
after many days you may receive a return.(B)
2 Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight;
you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 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.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 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.
6 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.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 11:5 Or know how life (or the spirit) / enters the body being formed
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
King James Version
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6
King James Version
11 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
3 If 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.
4 He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.
5 As 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.
6 In 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.
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New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
New International Version (NIV) 
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NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.