11 Send your bread on the surface of the waters,^(A)
for after many days you may find it.
² Give a portion to seven or even to eight,^(B)
for you don’t know what disaster may happen on earth.
³ If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain on the earth;
whether a tree falls to the south or the north,
the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
⁴ One who watches the wind will not sow,
and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap.
⁵ Just as you don’t know the path of the wind,
or how bones develop in^[a] the womb of a pregnant woman,
so you don’t know the work of God who makes everything.^(C)
6 In the morning sow your seed,
and at evening do not let your hand rest,
because you don’t know which will succeed,
whether one or the other,
or if both of them will be equally good.
⁷ Light is sweet,
and it is pleasing for the eyes to see the sun.^(D)
8 Indeed, if a man lives many years,
let him rejoice in them all,
and let him remember the days of darkness,^(E) since they will be many.
All that comes is futile.
⁹ Rejoice, young man, while you are young,
and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth.
And walk in the ways of your heart
and in the sight of your eyes;^(F)
but know that for all of these things God will bring you to judgment.
¹⁰ Remove sorrow from your heart,
and put away pain from your flesh,^(G)
because youth and the prime of life are fleeting.