Ecclesiastes 11:5

Bible in Basic English (1941)

As you have no knowledge of the way of the wind, or of the growth of the bones in the body of her who is with child, even so you have no knowledge of the works of God who has made all.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

כַּאֲשֶׁ֨ר אֵֽינְךָ֤ יוֹדֵ֙עַ֙ מַה־דֶּ֣רֶךְ הָר֔וּחַ כַּעֲצָמִ֖ים בְּבֶ֣טֶן הַמְּלֵאָ֑ה כָּ֗כָה לֹ֤א תֵדַע֙ אֶת־מַעֲשֵׂ֣ה הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֥ר יַעֲשֶׂ֖ה אֶת־הַכֹּֽל׃

Transliteration

As-which you-not yôdēaʿ what-dereḵ the-rûaḥ as-ʿăṣāmîm in-beṭen the-mĕlēʾāh thus not tēdaʿ [direct object marker]-maʿăśēh the-ʾĕlōhîm which yaʿăśeh [direct object marker]-the-all

Grammar Details

• *yôdēaʿ*: qal participle, masculine singular - knowing
• *dereḵ*: noun, masculine singular construct - way of/path of
• *rûaḥ*: noun, feminine singular - wind/spirit
• *ʿăṣāmîm*: noun, feminine plural - bones
• *beṭen*: noun, feminine singular construct - womb/belly of
• *mĕlēʾāh*: adjective, feminine singular - full/pregnant woman
• *tēdaʿ*: qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular - you will know
• *maʿăśēh*: noun, masculine singular construct - work/deed of
• *ʾĕlōhîm*: noun, masculine plural - God
• *yaʿăśeh*: qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular - he will do/make

Word Meanings

• *dereḵ*: way/path/journey
• *rûaḥ*: wind/breath/spirit
• *ʿăṣāmîm*: bones/substance/essence
• *beṭen*: womb/belly/inner part
• *mĕlēʾāh*: full one/pregnant woman
• *maʿăśēh*: work/deed/action
• *ʾĕlōhîm*: God/gods/divine being

Referenced Verses

• John 3:8 : 8 The wind goes where its pleasure takes it, and the sound of it comes to your ears, but you are unable to say where it comes from and where it goes: so it is with everyone whose birth is from the Spirit.
• Eccl 8:17 : 17 Then I saw all the work of God, and that man may not get knowledge of the work which is done under the sun; because, if a man gives hard work to the search he will not get knowledge, and even if the wise man seems to be coming to the end of his search, still he will be without knowledge.
• Ps 92:5 : 5 O Lord, how great are your works! and your thoughts are very deep.
• Ps 104:24 : 24 O Lord, how great is the number of your works! in wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of the things you have made.
• Ps 139:13-16 : 13 My flesh was made by you, and my parts joined together in my mother's body. 14 I will give you praise, for I am strangely and delicately formed; your works are great wonders, and of this my soul is fully conscious. 15 My frame was not unseen by you when I was made secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book all my days were recorded, even those which were purposed before they had come into being.
• Eccl 7:24 : 24 Far off is true existence, and very deep; who may have knowledge of it?
• Job 5:9 : 9 Who does great things outside our knowledge, wonders without number:
• Job 26:5-9 : 5 The shades in the underworld are shaking; the waters and those living in them. 6 The underworld is uncovered before him, and Destruction has no veil. 7 By his hand the north is stretched out in space, and the earth is hanging on nothing. 8 By him the waters are shut up in his thick clouds, and the cloud does not give way under them. 9 By him the face of his high seat is veiled, and his cloud stretched out over it. 10 By him a circle is marked out on the face of the waters, to the limits of the light and the dark. 11 The pillars of heaven are shaking, and are overcome by his sharp words. 12 By his power the sea was made quiet; and by his wisdom Rahab was wounded. 13 By his wind the heavens become bright: by his hand the quickly moving snake was cut through. 14 See, these are only the outskirts of his ways; and how small is that which comes to our ears about him! But the thunder of his acts of power is outside all knowledge.
• Job 36:24-33 : 24 See that you give praise to his work, about which men make songs. 25 All people are looking on it; man sees it from far. 26 Truly, God is great, greater than all our knowledge; the number of his years may not be searched out. 27 For he takes up the drops from the sea; he sends them through his mist as rain, 28 Flowing down from the sky, and dropping on the peoples. 29 And who has knowledge of how the clouds are stretched out, or of the thunders of his tent? 30 See, he is stretching out his mist, covering the tops of the mountains with it. 31 For by these he gives food to the peoples, and bread in full measure. 32 He takes the light in his hands, sending it against the mark. 33 The thunder makes clear his passion, and the storm gives news of his wrath.
• Job 37:23 : 23 There is no searching out of the Ruler of all: his strength and his judging are great; he is full of righteousness, doing no wrong.
• Job 38:4-39:30 : 4 Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge. 5 By whom were its measures fixed? Say, if you have wisdom; or by whom was the line stretched out over it? 6 On what were its pillars based, or who put down its angle-stone, 7 When the morning stars made songs together, and all the sons of the gods gave cries of joy? 8 Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing out from its secret place; 9 When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as bands round it, 10 Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors; 11 And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here the pride of your waves will be stopped? 12 Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place; 13 So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth, shaking all the evil-doers out of it? 14 It is changed like wet earth under a stamp, and is coloured like a robe; 15 And from the evil-doers their light is kept back, and the arm of pride is broken. 16 Have you come into the springs of the sea, walking in the secret places of the deep? 17 Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you? 18 Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say, if you have knowledge of it all. 19 Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and where is the store-house of the dark; 20 So that you might take it to its limit, guiding it to its house? 21 No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great. 22 Have you come into the secret place of snow, or have you seen the store-houses of the ice-drops, 23 Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting? 24 Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth? 25 By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the rain, and the flaming of the thunder; 26 Causing rain to come on a land where no man is living, on the waste land which has no people; 27 To give water to the land where there is waste and destruction, and to make the dry land green with young grass? 28 Has the rain a father? or who gave birth to the drops of night mist? 29 Out of whose body came the ice? and who gave birth to the cold mist of heaven? 30 The waters are joined together, hard as a stone, and the face of the deep is covered. 31 Are the bands of the Pleiades fixed by you, or are the cords of Orion made loose? 32 Do you make Mazzaroth come out in its right time, or are the Bear and its children guided by you? 33 Have you knowledge of the laws of the heavens? did you give them rule over the earth? 34 Is your voice sent up to the cloud, so that you may be covered by the weight of waters? 35 Do you send out the thunder-flames, so that they may go, and say to you, Here we are? 36 Who has put wisdom in the high clouds, or given knowledge to the lights of the north? 37 By whose wisdom are the clouds numbered, or the water-skins of the heavens turned to the earth, 38 When the earth becomes hard as metal, and is joined together in masses? 1 Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so that the young lions may have enough, 2 When they are stretched out in their holes, and are waiting in the brushwood? 3 Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for, when his young ones are crying to God; when the young lions with loud noise go wandering after their food? 4 Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young? 5 Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you? 6 They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body. 7 Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again. 8 Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast? 9 To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place. 10 He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears; 11 He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing. 12 Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store? 13 Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you? 14 Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care? 15 Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor? 16 Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers, 17 That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust, 18 Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field? 19 She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear. 20 For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge. 21 When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him. 22 Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power? 23 Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath? 24 He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear. 25 In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword. 26 The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow. 27 Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn; 28 When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries. 29 Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south? 30 Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high?
• Ps 40:5 : 5 O Lord my God, great are the wonders which you have done in your thought for us; it is not possible to put them out in order before you; when I would give an account of them, their number is greater than I may say.
• Isa 40:28 : 28 Have you no knowledge of it? has it not come to your ears? The eternal God, the Lord, the Maker of the ends of the earth, is never feeble or tired; there is no searching out of his wisdom.
• Rom 11:33 : 33 O how deep is the wealth of the wisdom and knowledge of God! no one is able to make discovery of his decisions, and his ways may not be searched out.