Ecclesiastes 11

Cast Your Bread upon the Waters

1 ¹Cast your bread upon the waters, ²for you will find it after many days.

2 ³Give a portion to ⁴seven, or even to eight, ⁵for 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 ⁶the spirit comes to ⁷the 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 ⁸withhold 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 ⁹see the sun.

8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember ¹⁰that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is ¹¹vanity.

9 ¹²Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. ¹³Walk in the ways of your heart and ¹⁴the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things ¹⁵God will bring you into judgment.

10 Remove vexation from your heart, and ¹⁶put away pain^[b] from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Ecclesiastes 11 Commentary

Chapter 11

Exhortation to liberality. (1-6) An admonition to prepare for death, and to young persons to be religious. (7-10)

Verses 1-6 Solomon presses the rich to do good to others. Give freely, though it may seem thrown away and lost. Give to many. Excuse not thyself with the good thou hast done, from the good thou hast further to do. It is not lost, but well laid out. We have reason to expect evil, for we are born to trouble; it is wisdom to do good in the day of prosperity. Riches cannot profit us, if we do not benefit others. Every man must labour to be a blessing to that place where the providence of God casts him. Wherever we are, we may find good work to do, if we have but hearts to do it. If we magnify every little difficulty, start objections, and fancy hardships, we shall never go on, much less go through with our work. Winds and clouds of tribulation are, in God's hands, designed to try us. God's work shall agree with his word, whether we see it or not. And we may well trust God to provide for us, without our anxious, disquieting cares. Be not weary in well-doing, for in due season, in God's time, you shall reap, ( Galatians 6:9 ) .

Verses 7-10 Life is sweet to bad men, because they have their portion in this life; it is sweet to good men, because it is the time of preparation for a better; it is sweet to all. Here is a caution to think of death, even when life is most sweet. Solomon makes an effecting address to young persons. They would desire opportunity to pursue every pleasure. Then follow your desires, but be assured that God will call you into judgment. How many give loose to every appetite, and rush into every vicious pleasure! But God registers every one of their sinful thoughts and desires, their idle words and wicked words. If they would avoid remorse and terror, if they would have hope and comfort on a dying bed, if they would escape misery here and hereafter, let them remember the vanity of youthful pleasures. That Solomon means to condemn the pleasures of sin is evident. His object is to draw the young to purer and more lasting joys. This is not the language of one grudging youthful pleasures, because he can no longer partake of them; but of one who has, by a miracle of mercy, been brought back in safety. He would persuade the young from trying a course whence so few return. If the young would live a life of true happiness, if they would secure happiness hereafter, let them remember their Creator in the days of their youth.

Cross References

• 1. [Isaiah 32:20]
• 2. [Deuteronomy 15:10; Proverbs 19:17; Matthew 10:42; Luke 14:14; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Galatians 6:9, 10; Hebrews 6:10]
• 3. [Psalms 112:9; Matthew 5:42; Luke 6:30; 1 Timothy 6:18, 19]
• 4. Micah 5:5; See Job 5:19; Proverbs 6:16
• 5. [Luke 16:9; Ephesians 5:16]
• 6. [Ecclesiastes 1:6; John 3:8]
• 7. See Psalms 139:13-16
• 8. Ecclesiastes 7:18
• 9. Ecclesiastes 6:5; Ecclesiastes 7:11
• 10. [Ecclesiastes 12:1, 2]
• 11. Ecclesiastes 2:23; See Ecclesiastes 1:2
• 12. [Ecclesiastes 2:10; Ecclesiastes 9:7]
• 13. [Numbers 15:39; Job 31:7]
• 14. Ecclesiastes 6:9
• 15. See Ecclesiastes 12:14
• 16. 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Timothy 2:22

Footnotes

• [a]. 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
• [b]. Or evil

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES 11

This chapter begins with an exhortation to liberality to the poor, enforced by several reasons and arguments, and the objections to it removed; and the whole illustrated by various similes, Ec 11:1-6; and then it is observed, that a life attended with outward prosperity and inward peace, and spent in doing good, is very delightful, and very desirable it is to have it continued; yet it should be remembered this will not be always, that many days of darkness in the grave will come; and after all the whole of a man's life is vanity, as is often inculcated, Ec 11:7,8; and the chapter is closed with an ironic address to young men, designed to show them the folly and danger of sinful courses, to reform them from them, and to put them in mind of a future judgment, Ec 11:9,10.