3 If the clouds are full of rain, they send it down on the earth; and if a tree comes down to the south, or the north, in whatever place it comes down, there it will be.
You have given your blessing to the earth, watering it and making it fertile; the river of God is full of water: and having made it ready, you give men grain. You make the ploughed lands full of water; you make smooth the slopes: you make the earth soft with showers, sending your blessing on its growth. The year is crowned with the good you give; life-giving rain is dropping from your footsteps, Falling on the grass of the waste land: and the little hills are glad on every side. The grass-land is thick with flocks; the valleys are full of grain; they give glad cries and songs of joy.
For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and does not go back again, but gives water to the earth, and makes it fertile, giving seed to the planter, and bread for food; So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it.
And in time the poor man came to his end, and angels took him to Abraham's breast. And the man of wealth came to his end, and was put in the earth. And in hell, being in great pain, lifting up his eyes he saw Abraham, far away, and Lazarus on his breast. And he gave a cry and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, so that he may put the end of his finger in water and put it on my tongue, for I am cruelly burning in this flame. But Abraham said, Keep in mind, my son, that when you were living, you had your good things, while Lazarus had evil things: but now, he is comforted and you are in pain. And in addition, there is a deep division fixed between us and you, so that those who might go from here to you are not able to do so, and no one may come from you to us.
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