Ecclesiastes 11
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.
Advice for Young and Old
7 Light is sweet; how pleasant to see a new day dawning.
8 When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. But let them also remember there will be many dark days. Everything still to come is meaningless.
9 Young people,[d] it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do. 10 So refuse to worry, and keep your body healthy. But remember that youth, with a whole life before you, is meaningless.
Footnotes
- 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.
- 11:9 Hebrew Young man.
Ecclesiastes 11
Lexham English Bible
Living in the Light of the Limits of Human Knowledge
11 Send out your bread on the water,
for in many days you will find it.
2 Divide your share in seven or in eight,
for you do not know what disaster will happen on the earth.
3 When the clouds are full,
they empty rain on the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or whether it falls to the north,
the place where the tree falls—there it will be.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not sow;
whoever watches the clouds will not reap.
5 Just as you do not know how the path of the wind[a] goes,
nor how the bones of a fetus form in a mother’s womb,
so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and do not let your hands rest in the evening,
for you do not know what will prosper—
whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.
Enjoy Life to the Fullest within the Auspices of the Fear of God
7 The light is sweet,
and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
8 For if a man lives many years,
let him rejoice in all of them!
Let him remember that the days of the darkness will be many—
all that is coming is vanity!
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth,
and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth!
Follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes—
but know that God will bring you into judgment for all these things.
10 Banish anxiety from your heart,
and put away pain from your body,
for youth and vigor are vanity.
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 11:5 Or “the breath”
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.
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