Ecclesiastes 11:9-10

9 ¹Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. ²Walk in the ways of your heart and ³the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things ⁴God will bring you into judgment.

10 Remove vexation from your heart, and ⁵put away pain^[a] from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Ecclesiastes 11:9-10 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.

Cross References

• 1. 11:9 [ch. 2:10; 9:7]
• 2. 11:9 [Num. 15:39; Job 31:7]
• 3. 11:9 ch. 6:9
• 4. 11:9 See ch. 12:14
• 5. 11:10 2 Cor. 7:1; 2 Tim. 2:22

Footnotes

• [a] 11:10 Or 'evil'