Ecclesiastes 11

1. Send your resources out over the seas; 1 eventually you will reap a return.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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