Cast Your Bread on the Waters

11 (A)Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you (B)will find it [a]after many days. (C)Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what (D)misfortune may occur on the earth. If the clouds are full, they pour out rain on the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it [b]lies. One who watches the wind will not sow and one who looks at the clouds will not harvest. Just as you do not (E)know the path of the [c]wind, and (F)how bones are formed in the womb of the [d]pregnant woman, so you do not (G)know the activity of God who makes everything.

Sow your seed (H)in the morning and do not [e]be idle in the evening, for you do not know whether [f]one or the other will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 11:1 Lit in, within
  2. Ecclesiastes 11:3 Lit is
  3. Ecclesiastes 11:5 Or with many mss spirit into the bones in the womb
  4. Ecclesiastes 11:5 Lit full
  5. Ecclesiastes 11:6 Lit let down your hand
  6. Ecclesiastes 11:6 Lit this or that

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