5 As you have no knowledge of the way of the wind, or of the growth of the bones in the body of her who is with child, even so you have no knowledge of the works of God who has made all.
The wind goes where its pleasure takes it, and the sound of it comes to your ears, but you are unable to say where it comes from and where it goes: so it is with everyone whose birth is from the Spirit.
Then I saw all the work of God, and that man may not get knowledge of the work which is done under the sun; because, if a man gives hard work to the search he will not get knowledge, and even if the wise man seems to be coming to the end of his search, still he will be without knowledge.
Who does great things outside our knowledge, wonders without number:
The shades in the underworld are shaking; the waters and those living in them. The underworld is uncovered before him, and Destruction has no veil. By his hand the north is stretched out in space, and the earth is hanging on nothing. By him the waters are shut up in his thick clouds, and the cloud does not give way under them. By him the face of his high seat is veiled, and his cloud stretched out over it. By him a circle is marked out on the face of the waters, to the limits of the light and the dark. The pillars of heaven are shaking, and are overcome by his sharp words. By his power the sea was made quiet; and by his wisdom Rahab was wounded. By his wind the heavens become bright: by his hand the quickly moving snake was cut through. See, these are only the outskirts of his ways; and how small is that which comes to our ears about him! But the thunder of his acts of power is outside all knowledge.
See that you give praise to his work, about which men make songs. All people are looking on it; man sees it from far. Truly, God is great, greater than all our knowledge; the number of his years may not be searched out. For he takes up the drops from the sea; he sends them through his mist as rain, Flowing down from the sky, and dropping on the peoples. And who has knowledge of how the clouds are stretched out, or of the thunders of his tent? See, he is stretching out his mist, covering the tops of the mountains with it. For by these he gives food to the peoples, and bread in full measure. He takes the light in his hands, sending it against the mark. The thunder makes clear his passion, and the storm gives news of his wrath.
There is no searching out of the Ruler of all: his strength and his judging are great; he is full of righteousness, doing no wrong.
O Lord my God, great are the wonders which you have done in your thought for us; it is not possible to put them out in order before you; when I would give an account of them, their number is greater than I may say.
My flesh was made by you, and my parts joined together in my mother's body. I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious. My frame was not unseen by you when I was made secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being.
Far off is true existence, and very deep; who may have knowledge of it?
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Ecclesiastes 11
Commentary on Ecclesiastes 11 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
“Let thy bread go forth over the watery mirror: for in the course of many days shalt thou find it.” Most interpreters, chiefly the Talm., Midrash, and Targ.,
(Note: The Midrash tells the following story: Rabbi Akiba sees a ship wrecked which carried in it one learned in the law. He finds him again actively engaged in Cappadocia. What whale, he asked him, has vomited thee out upon dry land? How hast thou merited this? The scribe learned in the law thereupon related that when he went on board the ship, he gave a loaf of bread to a poor man, who thanked him for it, saying: As thou hast saved my life, may thy life be saved. Thereupon Akiba thought of the proverb in Ecclesiastes 11:1. Similarly the Targ.: Extend to the poor the bread for thy support; they sail in ships over the water.)
regard this as an exhortation to charity, which although practised without expectation of reward, does not yet remain unrewarded at last. An Aram. proverb of Ben Sira's ( vid ., Buxtorf's Florilegium , p. 171) proceeds on this interpretation: “Scatter thy bread on the water and on the dry land; in the end of the days thou findest it again.” Knobel quotes a similar Arab. proverb from Diez' Denkwürdigkeiten von Asien (Souvenirs of Asia), II 106: “Do good; cast thy bread into the water: thou shalt be repaid some day.” See also the proverb in Goethe's Westöst. Divan , compared by Herzfeld. Voltaire, in his Précis de l'Ecclésiaste en vers , also adopts this rendering:
Repandez vos bien faits avec magnificence,
Même aux moins vertueux ne les refusez pas.
Ne vous informez pas de leur reconnaissance -
Il est grand, il est beau de faire des ingrats