Cast Your Bread on the Waters

11 Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, [be diligently active, make thoughtful decisions], for you will ^[a]find it after many days. ² Give a portion to seven, or even [divide it] to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth. ³ If the clouds are full [of rain], they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it lies. ⁴ He who watches the wind [waiting for all conditions to be perfect] will not sow [seed], and he who looks at the clouds will not reap [a harvest]. ⁵ Just as you do not know the way and path of the wind or how the bones are formed in the womb of a pregnant woman, even so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.

⁶ Sow your seed in the morning and do not be idle with your hands in the evening, for you do not know whether morning or evening planting will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both alike will be good.