5 As you don't know what is the way of the wind, Nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; Even so you don't know the work of God who does all.
"Those who are deceased tremble, Those beneath the waters and all that live in them. Sheol{Sheol is the lower world or the grave.} is naked before God, And Abaddon{Abaddon means Destroyer.} has no covering. He stretches out the north over empty space, And hangs the earth on nothing. He binds up the waters in his thick clouds, And the cloud is not burst under them. He encloses the face of his throne, And spreads his cloud on it. He has described a boundary on the surface of the waters, And to the confines of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven tremble And are astonished at his rebuke. He stirs up the sea with his power, And by his understanding he strikes through Rahab. By his Spirit the heavens are garnished. His hand has pierced the swift serpent. Behold, these are but the outskirts of his ways. How small a whisper do we hear of him! But the thunder of his power who can understand?"
"Remember that you magnify his work, Whereof men have sung. All men have looked thereon. Man sees it afar off. Behold, God is great, and we don't know him. The number of his years is unsearchable. For he draws up the drops of water, Which distill in rain from his vapor, Which the skies pour down And drop on man abundantly. Yes, can any understand the spreading of the clouds, And the thunderings of his pavilion? Behold, he spreads his light around him. He covers the bottom of the sea. For by these he judges the people. He gives food in abundance. He covers his hands with the lightning, And commands it to strike the mark. The noise of it tells about him, And the cattle also concerning the storm that comes up.
For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to you, For I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well. My frame wasn't hidden from you, When I was made in secret, Woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there were none of them.
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