1 Send your resources out over the seas;
eventually you will reap a return.
2 Divide your merchandise into seven or eight shares,
since you don’t know what disasters may come on the earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth.
Whether a tree falls toward the north or the south,
the place where the tree falls is where it stays.
4 He who keeps watching the wind will never sow;
he who keeps looking at the clouds will never reap.
5 Just as you don’t know the way of the wind
or how bones grow in a pregnant woman’s womb,
so you don’t know the work of God,
the maker of everything.
6 In the morning, sow your seed;
and don’t slack off until evening;
for you don’t know which sowing will succeed,
this, or that, or if both will do well.
7 Then the light will be sweet,
and it will be a pleasure to see the sun.
8 For if a person lives many years,
let him take joy in them all;
yet remembering that there will be many days of darkness,
that all to come is futile.
9 Young person, if you spend your youth only having fun,
if you use your early years just to entertain yourself,
if you follow your heart as you live your life,
and let your eyes be your guide;
understand that for all these things
God will bring you to judgment.
10 Therefore, remove anger from your heart;
and keep from harming your body;
for neither adolescence nor youth
has any lasting value.