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Ecclesiastes 11
New International Reader's Version
Ecclesiastes 11
New International Reader's Version
Do Many Things to Succeed
11 Sell your grain 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.
Ecclesiastes 11
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 11
New International Version
Invest in Many Ventures
11 Ship(A) your grain across the sea;
after many days you may receive a return.(B)
2 Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight;
you do not know what disaster may come upon the land.
3 If clouds are full of water,
they pour rain on the earth.
Whether a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where it falls, there it will lie.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the path of the wind,(C)
or how the body is formed[a] in a mother’s womb,(D)
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things.
6 Sow your seed in the morning,
and at evening let your hands not be idle,(E)
for you do not know which will succeed,
whether this or that,
or whether both will do equally well.
Remember Your Creator While Young
7 Light is sweet,
and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.(F)
8 However many years anyone may live,
let them enjoy them all.
But let them remember(G) the days of darkness,
for there will be many.
Everything to come is meaningless.
9 You who are young, be happy while you are young,
and let your heart give you joy in the days of your youth.
Follow the ways of your heart
and whatever your eyes see,
but know that for all these things
God will bring you into judgment.(H)
10 So then, banish anxiety(I) from your heart
and cast off the troubles of your body,
for youth and vigor are meaningless.(J)
Footnotes
- Ecclesiastes 11:5 Or know how life (or the spirit) / enters the body being formed
New International Reader's Version (NIRV) 
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.