Ecclesiastes 11:4-5

4 He who watches the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 Just as you do not 1know the path of the wind and 2how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not 3know the activity of God who makes all things.

Ecclesiastes 11:4-5 Meaning and Commentary

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.

Cross References 3

  • 1. John 3:8
  • 2. Psalms 139:13-16
  • 3. Ecclesiastes 1:13; Ecclesiastes 3:10, 11; Ecclesiastes 8:17

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Or with many mss "how the spirit" enters "the bones in the womb"
  • [b]. Lit "full"
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