Ecclesiastes · 10 verses
Ecclesiastes 11
Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.
The chapter
What happens here
Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.
A young man is told to walk by his heart and eyes, and then, with magnificent abruptness, reminded that God will judge the lot.
Bread, rain, and the fallen treevv. 1–6
Bread is cast upon the waters with the expectation that it will turn up again after many days. Portions are divided against an unknown disaster; rain falls when clouds are full, and a tree, once fallen, remains wherever it has landed. The watcher of wind and clouds never sows or reaps, while the path of the wind and the forming of bones remain beyond understanding. So seed is sown in the morning and the hands are kept busy in the evening, since either effort, or both, may prosper.
Sweet light, brief youthvv. 7–10
Light is sweet, and the sun pleases the eyes. A man who lives many years is to rejoice in them all, though the dark days will be many and everything to come is futile. The young man is told to rejoice, let his heart be glad, and walk in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his eyes; then comes the sober interruption that God will bring all these things to judgment. Sorrow is banished from the heart, pain cast off from the body, and youth and vigor are declared fleeting.
The text
Read it
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.
Eccl 11:1Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.
Eccl 11:2Divide your portion among seven, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may befall the land.
Eccl 11:3If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain upon the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
Eccl 11:4He who watches the wind will fail to sow, and he who observes the clouds will fail to reap.
Eccl 11:5As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
Eccl 11:6Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.
Eccl 11:7Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.
Eccl 11:8So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.
Eccl 11:9Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. 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 to judgment.
Eccl 11:10So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.
02 — Read alongside
Where this is echoed
Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 157 passages were voted onto 10 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.
- 62 Corinthians 9:10–11Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.
- 6Isaiah 55:10For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
- 6Haggai 1:6–11You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
- 6Hosea 10:12Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
- 62 Corinthians 9:6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
- 6Zechariah 8:11–12But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did in the past,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
- 6John 4:36–38Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
- 61 Corinthians 3:5–7What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
- 62 Timothy 4:2Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.
- 6Mark 4:26–29Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground.
- 6Ecclesiastes 9:1So I took all this to heart and concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, are in God’s hands. Man does not know what lies ahead, whether love or hate.
- 6Acts 11:20–21But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.
- 9Ecclesiastes 12:14For God will bring every deed into judgment, along with every hidden thing, whether good or evil.
- 91 John 2:15–16Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- 9Ecclesiastes 12:1Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of adversity come and the years approach of which you will say, “I find no pleasure in them,”
- 1Ecclesiastes 11:6Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.
Onward