Ecclesiastes 11:6-10

6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening ¹withhold 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 ²see the sun.

8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember ³that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is ⁴vanity.

9 ⁵Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. ⁶Walk in the ways of your heart and ⁷the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things ⁸God will bring you into judgment.

10 Remove vexation from your heart, and ⁹put away pain^[a] from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Ecclesiastes 11:6-10 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ECCLESIASTES 11

This chapter begins with an exhortation to liberality to the poor, enforced by several reasons and arguments, and the objections to it removed; and the whole illustrated by various similes, Ec 11:1-6; and then it is observed, that a life attended with outward prosperity and inward peace, and spent in doing good, is very delightful, and very desirable it is to have it continued; yet it should be remembered this will not be always, that many days of darkness in the grave will come; and after all the whole of a man's life is vanity, as is often inculcated, Ec 11:7,8; and the chapter is closed with an ironic address to young men, designed to show them the folly and danger of sinful courses, to reform them from them, and to put them in mind of a future judgment, Ec 11:9,10.

Cross References

• 1. Ecclesiastes 7:18
• 2. Ecclesiastes 6:5; Ecclesiastes 7:11
• 3. [Ecclesiastes 12:1, 2]
• 4. Ecclesiastes 2:23; See Ecclesiastes 1:2
• 5. [Ecclesiastes 2:10; Ecclesiastes 9:7]
• 6. [Numbers 15:39; Job 31:7]
• 7. Ecclesiastes 6:9
• 8. See Ecclesiastes 12:14
• 9. 2 Corinthians 7:1; 2 Timothy 2:22

Footnotes

• [a]. Or evil