Ecclesiastes 11:1

Invest in Many Ventures

1 Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 in Other Translations

King James Version (KJV)
1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
English Standard Version (ESV)
1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.
New Living Translation (NLT)
1 Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you.
The Message Bible (MSG)
1 e generous: Invest in acts of charity. Charity yields high returns.
American Standard Version (ASV)
1 Cast thy bread upon the waters; for thou shalt find it after many days.
GOD'S WORD Translation (GW)
1 Throw your bread on the surface of the water, because you will find it again after many days.
Holman Christian Standard Bible (CSB)
1 Send your bread on the surface of the waters, for after many days you may find it.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV)
1 Put your money into trade across the ocean. After a while you will earn something from it.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 11:1

Cast thy bread upon the waters
As the wise man had often suggested that nothing was better for a man than to enjoy the good of his labour himself, he here advises to let others, the poor, have a share with him; and as he had directed in the preceding chapter how men should behave towards their superiors, he here instructs them what notice they should take of their inferiors; and as he had cautioned against luxury and intemperance, he here guards against tenacity and covetousness, and exhorts to beneficence and liberality: that which is to be given is "bread", which is put for all the necessaries of life, food and raiment; or money that answers all things, what may be a supply of wants, a support of persons in distress; what is useful, profitable, and beneficial; not stones or scorpions, or what will be useless or harmful: and it must be "thy" bread, a man's own; not independent of God who gives it him; but not another's, what he owes another, or has fraudulently obtained; but what he has got by his own labour, or he is through divine Providence in lawful possession of; hence alms in the Hebrew language is called "righteousness": and it must be such bread as is convenient and fit for a man himself, such as he himself and his family eat of, and this he must cast, it must be a man's own act, and a voluntary one; his bread must not be taken and forced from him; it must be given freely, and in such a manner as not to be expected again; and bountifully and plentifully, as a man casts seed into the earth; but here it is said to be "upon the waters"; bread is to be given to such as are in distress and affliction, that have waters of a full cup wrung out unto them, whose faces are watered with tears, and foul with weeping, from whom nothing is to be expected again, who can make no returns; so that what is given thorn seems to be cast away and lost, like what is thrown into a river, or into the midst of the sea; and even it is to be given to such who prove ungrateful and unthankful, and on whom no mark or impression of the kindness is made and left, no more than upon water; yea, it is to be given to strangers never seen before nor after, like gliding water; so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, "passing waters": or else to such who may be compared to well watered ground, or "moist ground", as Mr. Broughton renders it; where the seed cast will grow up again, and bring forth fruit, and redound to the advantage of the sower, as what is given to the poor does; they are a good soil to sow upon, especially Christ's poor, who are partakers of his living water, grace; see ( Isaiah 32:20 ) ; though it may be the multitude of persons to whom alms is to be given are here intended, which are sometimes signified by waters, ( Revelation 17:15 ) ; as ( Ecclesiastes 11:2 ) seems to explain it. The Targum is,

``reach out the bread of thy sustenance to the poor that go in ships upon the thee of the water;''
and some think the speech is borrowed from navigation, and is an allusion to merchants who send their goods beyond sea, and have a large return for them; for thou shalt find it after many days;
not the identical bread itself, but the fruit and reward of such beneficence; which they shall have unexpectedly, or after long waiting, as the husbandman for his seed; it suggests that such persons should live long, as liberal persons oftentimes do, and increase in their worldly substance; and if they should not live to reap the advantage of their liberality, yet their posterity will, as the seed of Jonathan did for the kindness he showed to David: or, however, if they find it not again in temporal things, yet in spirituals; and shall be recompensed in the resurrection of the just, and to all eternity. So the Targum,
``for after the time of many days, then thou shall find the reward of it in this world (so it is in the king's Bible), and in the world to come;''
see ( Luke 12:12-14 ) . Jarchi instances in Jethro. Noldius F16 renders it "within many days", even before many days are at an end; for seed sown by waters in hot climates soon sprung up, and produced fruit; see ( Daniel 11:20 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

F16 Ebr. Concord. Partic. p. 155. No. 704.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 In-Context

1 Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return.
2 Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 If clouds are full of water, they pour rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Cross References 2

  • 1. ver 6; Isaiah 32:20; Hosea 10:12
  • 2. S Deuteronomy 24:19; Proverbs 19:17; Matthew 10:42
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