Ecclesiastes 11:1-6

1 Send forth thy bread upon the face of the water: for thou shalt find it after many days.

2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil there shall be upon the earth.

3 If the clouds be filled with rain, they pour out upon the earth: and if a tree fall southward, or if it fall northward, in the place where the tree shall fall, there it shall be.

4 He that observes the wind sows not; and he that looks at the clouds will not reap.

5 Among whom none knows what is the way of the wind: as the bones in the womb of a pregnant , so thou shalt not know the works of God, all things whatsoever he shall do.

6 In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening let not thine hand be slack: for thou knowest not what sort shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether both shall be good alike.

Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 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.