The chapter starts with advice about risk. Cast your bread upon the waters, says the Preacher, and you will find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and even to eight, because you cannot know what evil may come upon the earth. Then he turns to things no one controls. When the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the ground. A tree that falls lies where it falls, to the south or to the north. Someone who watches the wind will never sow, and someone who studies the clouds will never reap.
His reason is how little a person knows. You do not know the way of the spirit, or how the bones grow in a woman who is with child, and so you cannot know the works of God, who makes everything. His answer to that is to keep working. Sow your seed in the morning, and in the evening do not rest your hand, because you cannot tell which will do well, this one or that, or whether both will.
Then he says something warm. The light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. A person may live many years and rejoice in every one of them. Even so, he should remember that the days of darkness will be many, and that all that comes is vanity.
The chapter ends by speaking to a young man. Rejoice in your youth, let your heart cheer you, and walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all of this God will bring you into judgement. So put sorrow away from your heart and evil from your flesh, for childhood and youth are vanity.
Coming Up in Chapter 12
The last chapter begins with a call to the young. Remember your Creator now, in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years arrive when you say you have no pleasure in them. The Preacher then paints old age in pictures of a house, a tree and a cord. Where does it end?
