1 Send out your bread on the water, for in many days you will find it.
2 Divide your share in seven or in eight, for you do not know what disaster will happen on the earth.
3 When the clouds are full, they empty rain on the earth. Whether a tree falls to the south or whether it falls to the north, the place where the tree falls--there it will be.
4 Whoever watches the wind will not sow; whoever watches the clouds will not reap.
5 Just as you do not know how the path of the wind [goes], nor how the bones [of a fetus] form in a mother's womb, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.
6 Sow your seed in the morning, and do not let your hands rest in the evening, for you do not know what will prosper-- whether this or that, or whether both of them alike will succeed.
7 The light is sweet, and it [is] pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.
8 For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in all of them! Let him remember that the days of the darkness will be many-- all that is coming [is] vanity!
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth! Follow the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes-- but know that God will bring you into judgment for all these things.
10 Banish anxiety from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and vigor [are] vanity.