Ecclesiastes 11:2-10

2 Divide your merchandise into seven or eight shares, since you don't know what disasters may come on the earth.

3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth. Whether a tree falls toward the north or the south, the place where the tree falls is where it stays.

4 He who keeps watching the wind will never sow; he who keeps looking at the clouds will never reap.

5 Just as you don't know the way of the wind or how bones grow in a pregnant woman's womb, so you don't know the work of God, the maker of everything.

6 In the morning, sow your seed; and don't slack off until evening; for you don't know which sowing will succeed, this, or that, or if both will do well.

7 Then the light will be sweet, and it will be a pleasure to see the sun. 1086

8 For if a person lives many years, let him take joy in them all; yet remembering that there will be many days of darkness, that all to come is futile.

9 Young person, if you spend your youth only having fun, if you use your early years just to entertain yourself, if you follow your heart as you live your life, and let your eyes be your guide; understand that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

10 Therefore, remove anger from your heart; and keep from harming your body; for neither adolescence nor youth has any lasting value.

Ecclesiastes 11:2-10 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.