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New Testament
Ecclesiastes 11
2Put part of your investment into seven or even into eight ventures, for you do not know what disaster might come upon the land.
3If the clouds are full, they pour out rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, wherever it falls, there it will lie.
4Whoever keeps watching the wind will never sow, and anyone who keeps looking at the clouds will never reap.
5Just as you do not know the path of the wind,[] or how bones form in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God, who makes everything.
6In the morning sow your seed, and at evening do not let your hand rest, for you do not know which effort will succeed, this one or that, or if both of them will be equally good.
7Light is sweet, and it is good for eyes to see the sun.
8Yes, even if a man lives many years, in all of them let him find joy, but let him keep in mind the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come is vapor.
Advice to the Young
9Young man, be happy while you are a child, and let your heart make you glad during the days of your youth. Walk down the roads on which your heart leads you and on the way your eyes see, but know that for all these, God will bring you into judgment.
Footnotes
- 11:1 The translation is literal. The three main applications of the principle are to international commerce, charity, and brewing beer. (Soaking bread in water was their method of brewing.) In all three cases, the point of the proverb is the same: You have to invest something to make a profit.
- 11:5 Or the way of the spirit
- 11:10 Or because both youth and the coming darkness are vapor