Ecclesiastes 11
11
What a Wise Person Does
1Invest your money in foreign trade, and one of these days you will make a profit. 2Put your investments in several places — many places, in fact — because you never know what kind of bad luck you are going to have in this world.
3No matter in which direction a tree falls, it will lie where it fell. When the clouds are full, it rains. 4If you wait until the wind and the weather are just right, you will never sow anything and never harvest anything. 5God made everything, and you can no more understand what he does than you understand how new life begins in the womb of a pregnant woman. 6Do your sowing in the morning and in the evening, too. You never know whether it will all grow well or whether one sowing will do better than the other.
7It is good to be able to enjoy the pleasant light of day. 8Be grateful for every year you live. No matter how long you live, remember that you will be dead much longer. There is nothing at all to look forward to.
Advice to Young People
9Young people, enjoy your youth. Be happy while you are still young. Do what you want to do, and follow your heart's desire. But remember that God is going to judge you for whatever you do.
10Don't let anything worry you or cause you pain. You aren't going to be young very long.
Currently Selected:
Ecclesiastes 11: GNBDC
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
Ecclesiastes 11
11
1 CAST YOUR bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, yes, even [divide it] to eight, for you know not what evil may come upon the earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
4 He who observes the wind [and waits for all conditions to be favorable] will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5 As you know not what is the way of the wind, or how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a pregnant woman, even so you know not the work of God, Who does all.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening withhold not your hands, for you know not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
7 Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.
8 Yes, if a man should live many years, let him rejoice in them all; yet let him [seriously] remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that comes is vanity (emptiness, falsity, vainglory, and futility)!
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your adolescence, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your [full-grown] youth. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.
10 Therefore remove [the lusts that end in] sorrow and vexation from your heart and mind and put away evil from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity [transitory, idle, empty, and devoid of truth]. [II Cor. 7:1; II Tim. 2:22.]
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation