| NET Bible | English Standard Version |
| 1Send your grain overseas, for after many days you will get a return. | 1Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days. |
| 2Divide your merchandise among seven or even eight investments, for you do not know what calamity may happen on earth. | 2Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you know not what disaster may happen on earth. |
| 3If the clouds are full of rain, they will empty themselves on the earth, and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the tree will lie wherever it falls. | 3If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth, and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie. |
| 4He who watches the wind will not sow, and he who observes the clouds will not reap. | 4He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap. |
| 5Just as you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones form in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. | 5As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. |
| 6Sow your seed in the morning, and do not stop working until the evening; for you do not know which activity will succeed--whether this one or that one, or whether both will prosper equally. | 6In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good. |
| 7Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for a person to see the sun. | 7Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun. |
| 8So, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all, but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many--all that is about to come is obscure. | 8So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity. |
| 9Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes, but know that God will judge your motives and actions. | 9Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. |
| 10Banish emotional stress from your mind. and put away pain from your body; for youth and the prime of life are fleeting. | 10Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity. |
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