Ecclesiastes 11

1Send your bread out on the waters, for after many days you will find it again.

2Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.

3If the clouds are full of rain, they empty it on the earth; and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.

4Whoever watches the wind will not sow, and whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

5Just as you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones take shape in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.

6Sow your seed in the morning, and in the evening do not let your hand rest, for you do not know which will succeed, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

7Light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun.

8For if people live many years, let them rejoice in them all; but let them remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. All that comes is futile.

9Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the ways of your heart and the sights of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

10So banish vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are fleeting.