Ecclesiastes 11

Ecclesiastes 11 is the eleventh chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book contains philosophical speeches by a character called ' Qoheleth', composed probably between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE. Peshitta, Targum, and Talmud attribute the authorship of the book to King Solomon. Michael Eaton notes that this chapter and the next are characterized by the encouragement to make decision and the need to act speedily.

Text

The original text was written in Hebrew. This chapter is divided into 10 verses: by number of verses it is the shortest chapter in Ecclesiastes.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus. The Greek text is probably derived from the work of Aquila of Sinope or his followers.

Structure

The New King James Version divides this chapter into two sections:

- The Value of Diligence
- Seek God in Early Life

The venture of faith (11:1–6)

The keyword for this section is "faith" or considerable trust, so the ominous outlook or the unexpected happenings will not ruin the joy of life.

Verse 1

"Cast your bread upon the waters": a saying about spontaneous good deeds, It seems to have a parallel in the Egyptian wisdom text Instruction of 'Onchsheshonqy, 'where the good deed thrown in the water is later recovered when dry'.
"Bread" is in the sense of "goods, livelihood".
This verse was chosen by the Zionist Haganah to name its operation Cast Thy Bread of biological warfare against Palestinian Arab populations in the War of 1948.

Verse 3

This verse has been interpreted as having an eschatological dimension "because death will shortly cut us down". It is also considered the basis for the tort law principle damnum absque injuria that one bears the financial burden of their losses unless another person is at legal fault for proximately causing those damages.

The life of joy (11:7–10)

Qoheleth ends his long monologue with a summary of advice: "life is good and to be enjoyed", especially best when one is young, but against that enjoyment, one must remember that "darkness is to follow, and that deeds will be judged", as "to remember one's creator is also to remember one's judge".

Verse 9

This is not to imply that enjoyment is contrary to God's will, because Qoheleth states multiple times that enjoyment is God's gift, so it is more to mean that God will judge people for the failure to accept the gift of enjoyment.