5 As thou knowest not what `is' the way of the spirit, How -- bones in the womb of the full one, So thou knowest not the work of God who maketh the whole.
The Rephaim are formed, Beneath the waters, also their inhabitants. Naked `is' Sheol over-against Him, And there is no covering to destruction. Stretching out the north over desolation, Hanging the earth upon nothing, Binding up the waters in His thick clouds, And the cloud is not rent under them. Taking hold of the face of the throne, Spreading over it His cloud. A limit He hath placed on the waters, Unto the boundary of light with darkness. Pillars of the heavens do tremble, And they wonder because of His rebuke. By His power He hath quieted the sea, And by His understanding smitten the proud. By His Spirit the heavens He beautified, Formed hath His hand the fleeing serpent. Lo, these `are' the borders of His way, And how little a matter is heard of Him, And the thunder of His might Who doth understand?
Remember that thou magnify His work That men have beheld. All men have looked on it, Man looketh attentively from afar. Lo, God `is' high, And we know not the number of His years, Yea, there `is' no searching. When He doth diminish droppings of the waters, They refine rain according to its vapour, Which clouds do drop, They distil on man abundantly. Yea, doth `any' understand The spreadings out of a cloud? The noises of His tabernacle? Lo, He hath spread over it His light, And the roots of the sea He hath covered, For by them He doth judge peoples, He giveth food in abundance. By two palms He hath covered the light, And layeth a charge over it in meeting, He sheweth by it `to' his friend substance, Anger against perversity.
For Thou -- Thou hast possessed my reins, Thou dost cover me in my mother's belly. I confess Thee, because that `with' wonders I have been distinguished. Wonderful `are' Thy works, And my soul is knowing `it' well. My substance was not hid from Thee, When I was made in secret, Curiously wrought in the lower part of earth. Mine unformed substance Thine eyes saw, And on Thy book all of them are written, The days they were formed -- And not one among them.
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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