Ecclesiastes Cast Your Bread on the Waters for After Many Days You Will Find It Again
Question
What is the pregnant of "Cast your bread upon the waters" in Ecclesiastes 11:ane?
Reply
Ecclesiastes 11:one says, "Bandage your staff of life upon the waters, for you will find it after many days" (ESV). This maxim has led to a variety of interpretations, some better than others. We will take a look at a couple of them in this article.
One view is that the instruction to "bandage your bread upon the waters" has to do with international commerce. The principle is that, if you invest your "staff of life" or "grain" wisely, in a broad enough market, you will garner a render. A couple of Bible translations bring out this meaning:
"Transport your grain across the sea; afterwards many days y'all may receive a return" (NIV).
"Invest your coin in foreign trade, and one of these days you will make a profit" (GNT).
The trouble with seeing this verse as communication on international trade is that the context doesn't much support information technology. One of the themes of Ecclesiastes is that financial gain is "vanity" (see Ecclesiastes 5:10–17), so why would the author, Solomon, nearly the terminate of the book, be giving advice on how to profit?
Another view is that the educational activity to "cast your bread upon the waters" is a metaphor for being generous, even if a return seems unlikely. A couple translations emphasize this significant:
"Be generous, and someday y'all will be rewarded" (CEV).
"Practise expert wherever you become. After a while, the good you do will come back to you" (ERV).
This second, metaphorical view is probably more in line with the intent of the verse. Casting bread or sowing seed on water seems to be an practice in futility. Merely you don't know what the bodily results will exist, says Solomon; in faith be generous, and in faith expect a return somewhere down the route. This accords with Proverbs 11:18, "The i who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward"; and Galatians half-dozen:9, "Let united states non become weary in doing skillful, for at the proper fourth dimension we will reap a harvest if we do non surrender."
Carrying that interpretation frontward, nosotros expect at Ecclesiastes 11:i–2 together:
"Transport your grain across the sea;
later many days you lot may receive a return.
Invest in vii ventures, yes, in eight;
you practise not know what disaster may come upon the land."
The passage as a whole communicates the principle of doing every bit much practiced equally you tin, knowing two things: the results are in God's hands, and you lot don't know when you yourself will exist in need of someone else's generosity.
The book of Ecclesiastes is unique in the Hebrew Scriptures. It is the merely book that overtly philosophizes. Specifically, Ecclesiastes is a book of practical philosophy—it is based on observation and experience, not on strained, esoteric ideas.
The topic in Ecclesiastes 11:1–6 is not how water affects bread. It is well-nigh how our goodness affects the world. The breadstuff and water are used as imagery. The "staff of life," which by metonymy is best understood to be the seed of the bread (its grain), represents our goodness, and the rest of the passage encourages us to be undeterred in our "sowing." We must "cast our breadstuff"—nosotros must liberally extend our goodness, even when it doesn't seem to be doing any good (cf. Matthew v:44 and Luke 14:13–xiv).
We should note that Ecclesiastes xi:1 is non a holy algorithm that says if you practise X in the Y way then Z will happen. Rather, Solomon gives us a precept and a prescription. It is not a formula like those used in laboratories that necessarily yield the aforementioned results time after time. Sowing goodness comes under the realm of social scientific discipline.
Solomon is offering good advice based on his observations. Only since people are involved—and since people are volitional creatures—the saying cannot guarantee a positive result in every instance. This "no guarantees" aspect of benignancy is shown by the phrase "upon the waters." We cast our staff of life out into the world, and we simply cannot know if every seed will find a place to grow. What we do know is that a meaning number of seeds volition abound. We should non go hung upwards on the fact that some of the seeds will not thrive (cf. Mark iv:iii–20).
Casting bread upon the waters evokes the constabulary of sowing and reaping. The seed in this case is 1's acts of goodness. There will exist a harvest in heaven, if non in this world. But the bespeak Solomon makes is more than that nosotros should sow goodness in gild to reap a future harvest; the idea is for us to become people who will benefit for goodness' sake, irrespective of the harvest.
Ecclesiastes eleven:1–6 can reasonably mean, "Sow seeds of goodness every twenty-four hour period, even when it doesn't brand sense to exercise so. In due flavor you will reap a reward. Be diligent about sowing goodness, and take no excuses! Then goodness will get a part of who yous are, not merely a thing that you do, and the earth will be a better place considering of it."
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This page last updated: January iv, 2022
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