Living in the Light of the Limits of Human Knowledge

¹ Send out your bread on the water, for in many days you will find it.

² Divide your share in seven or in eight, for you do not know what disaster will happen on the earth.

³ When the clouds are full, they empty rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or whether it falls to the north, the place where the tree falls—there it will be.

⁴ Whoever watches the wind will not sow; whoever watches the clouds will not reap.

⁵ Just as you do not know how the path of the wind¹ goes, nor how the bones of a fetus form in a mother’s womb, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

1. Or “the breath”

Enjoy Life to the Fullest within the Auspices of the Fear of God

⁶ Sow your seed in the morning, and do not let your hands rest in the evening, for you do not know what will prosper— whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.

⁷ The light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

⁸ For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in all of them! Let him remember that the days of the darkness will be many— all that is coming is vanity!

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

¹⁰ Banish anxiety from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and vigor are vanity.