30th October 2022 - ”THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS” - Ecclesiastes 11:1-8

Ecclesiastes 11:1-8

 

English Standard Version

 

Cast Your Bread upon the Waters

11 Cast your bread upon the waters,
    for you will find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
    for you know not what disaster may happen on earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain,
    they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
    in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
4 He who observes the wind will not sow,
    and he who regards the clouds will not reap.

5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb[a] of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.[b]

Footnotes

1. Ecclesiastes 11:5 Some Hebrew manuscripts, Targum; most Hebrew manuscripts As you do not know the way of the wind, or how the bones grow in the womb
2. Ecclesiastes 11:8 The Hebrew term hebel can refer to a “vapor” or “mere breath”; also verse 10 (see note on 1:2)