10 Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, And put away evil from your flesh; For youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
Flee from youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
His bones are full of his youth, But youth shall lie down with him in the dust.
Don't remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. Remember me according to your loving kindness, For your goodness' sake, Yahweh.
For we are consumed in your anger. We are troubled in your wrath. You have set our iniquities before you, Our secret sins in the light of your presence. For all our days have passed away in your wrath. We bring our years to an end as a sigh. The days of our years are seventy, Or even by reason of strength eighty years; Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, For it passes quickly, and we fly away. Who knows the power of your anger, Your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: The rod of discipline drives it far from him.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, Before the evil days come, and the years draw near, When you will say, "I have no pleasure in them;"
Therefore since all these things are thus to be destroyed, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which dwells righteousness. Therefore, beloved, seeing that you look for these things, be diligent to be found in peace, without blemish and blameless in his sight.
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