Prediger 11,9 | New International Reader’s Version

Do many things to succeed

1 Sell your corn in the market overseas. After a while you might earn something from it. 2 Try to succeed by doing many things. After all, you don’t know what great trouble might come on the land. 3 Clouds that are full of water pour rain down on the earth. A tree might fall to the south or the north. It will stay in the place where it falls. 4 Anyone who keeps on watching the wind won’t plant seeds. Anyone who keeps looking at the clouds won’t gather crops. 5 You don’t know the path the wind takes. You don’t know how a baby is made inside its mother. So you can’t understand how God works either. He made everything. 6 In the morning plant your seeds. In the evening keep your hands busy. You don’t know what will succeed. It may be one or the other. Or both might do equally well.

Remember your Creator while you are young

7 Light is sweet. People enjoy being out in the sun. 8 No matter how many years anyone might live, let them enjoy all of them. But let them remember the dark days. There will be many of those. Nothing that’s going to happen will have any meaning. 9 You young people, be happy while you are still young. Let your heart be joyful while you are still strong. Do what your heart tells you to do. Go after what your eyes look at. But I want you to know that God will judge you for everything you do. 10 So drive worry out of your heart. Get rid of all your troubles. Being young and strong doesn’t have any meaning.

English Standard Version

Cast Your Bread upon the Waters

1 Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. 3 If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. 4 He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. 5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb* of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. 6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. 7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. 8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.* 9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. 10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain* from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Prediger 11,9 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

Do many things to succeed

Remember your Creator while you are young

Cast Your Bread upon the Waters