Ecclesiastes 11:6

Linguistic Bible Translation from Source Texts

Sow your seed in the morning and do not withhold your hand in the evening, for you do not know which will prosper—whether this or that, or if both will equally thrive.

Additional Resources

Other Translations

  • King James Version 1769 (Standard Version)

    In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

  • KJV1611 – Modern English

    In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both will be equally good.

  • King James Version 1611 (Original)

    In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

  • American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

    In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

  • King James Version with Strong's Numbers

    In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

  • Coverdale Bible (1535)

    Cease not thou therfore with thy handes to sowe thy sede, whether it be in ye mornynge or in the euenynge: for thou knowest not whether this or that shall prospere, & yf they both take, it is the better.

  • Geneva Bible (1560)

    In the morning sowe thy seede, and in the euening let not thine hand rest: for thou knowest not whither shall prosper, this or that, or whether both shalbe a like good.

  • Bishops' Bible (1568)

    Ceasse not thou therefore with thy handes to sowe thy seede, whether it be in the morning or in the euening: for thou knowest not whether this or that shall prosper, and if they both take, it is the better.

  • Authorized King James Version (1611)

    In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both [shall be] alike good.

  • Webster's Bible (1833)

    In the morning sow your seed, And in the evening don't withhold your hand; For you don't know which will prosper, whether this or that, Or whether they both will be equally good.

  • Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

    In the morning sow thy seed, And at even withdraw not thy hand, For thou knowest not which is right, this or that, Or whether both of them alike `are' good.

  • American Standard Version (1901)

    In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

  • American Standard Version (1901)

    In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not which shall prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

  • Bible in Basic English (1941)

    In the morning put your seed into the earth, and till the evening let not your hand be at rest; because you are not certain which will do well, this or that--or if the two will be equally good.

  • World English Bible (2000)

    In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening don't withhold your hand; for you don't know which will prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both will be equally good.

  • NET Bible® (New English Translation)

    Sow 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.

Referenced Verses

  • Eccl 9:10 : 10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
  • 2 Tim 4:2 : 2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and teaching.
  • Isa 55:10 : 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, providing seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
  • Hos 10:12 : 12 Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and showers His righteousness on you.
  • Hag 1:6-9 : 6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but are never satisfied. You drink but never have enough to be filled. You put on clothes but are not warm. The one who earns wages earns them to put into a bag with holes. 7 This is what the LORD of Hosts says: Consider carefully your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains, bring down timber, and build the house, so that I may be pleased with it and be glorified, says the LORD. 9 You expected much, but it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew it away. Why?” declares the LORD of Hosts. “Because My house remains in ruins, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you, the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, and everything the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.
  • Hag 2:17-19 : 17 I struck you—all the work of your hands— with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to me—this is the declaration of the LORD. 18 From this day forward, consider carefully: From the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month—the day the foundation of the temple of the LORD was laid—consider it carefully. 19 Is there still seed left in the granary? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced fruit. But from this day on, I will bless you.
  • Zech 8:11-12 : 11 But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did in the past, declares the LORD of Hosts. 12 For the seed of peace will flourish: the vine will yield its fruit, the land will produce its crops, the heavens will give their dew, and I will give these blessings to the remnant of this people.
  • Mark 4:26-29 : 26 He also said, "The kingdom of God is like this: A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises—night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows—he doesn’t know how. 28 The soil produces a crop by itself—first the blade, then the head, and then the full grain on the head. 29 As soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle because the harvest has come.
  • John 4:36-38 : 36 The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: 'One sows, and another reaps.' 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.
  • Acts 11:20-21 : 20 But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and also began speaking to the Greeks, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus. 21 The hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.
  • 1 Cor 3:5-7 : 5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So then, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
  • 2 Cor 9:6 : 6 Remember this: The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows generously will also reap generously.
  • 2 Cor 9:10-11 : 10 Now the one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which through us produces thanksgiving to God.
  • Eccl 9:1 : 1 So I reflected on all this and set my heart to examine it: that the righteous, the wise, and their deeds are in the hand of God. People do not know whether love or hatred awaits them; everything lies before them.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Eccl 11:1-5
    5 verses
    78%

    1Send your bread upon the waters, for in many days you will find it again.

    2Give a portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what disaster may come upon the earth.

    3When the clouds are full, they pour down rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, wherever it falls, there it will lie.

    4Whoever watches the wind will not sow, and whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

    5Just as you do not know the path of the wind or how bones are formed in a pregnant woman's womb, so you cannot understand the workings of God who makes everything.

  • Isa 17:11
    76%

    11Though on the day you plant them you make them grow, and in the morning you make your seed blossom, yet the harvest will be a heap on the day of grief and incurable pain.

  • Mark 4:26-28
    3 verses
    76%

    26He also said, "The kingdom of God is like this: A man scatters seed on the ground.

    27He sleeps and rises—night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows—he doesn’t know how.

    28The soil produces a crop by itself—first the blade, then the head, and then the full grain on the head.

  • 2 Cor 9:6
    74%

    6Remember this: The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows generously will also reap generously.

  • Eccl 7:14
    74%

    14When times are good, be joyful; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made one as well as the other. Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.

  • Eccl 11:7
    73%

    7Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun.

  • Eccl 9:10-11
    2 verses
    73%

    10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.

    11Again I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor does bread come to the wise, nor riches to the discerning, nor favor to the knowledgeable; but time and chance happen to them all.

  • Eccl 6:11-12
    2 verses
    73%

    11The more words, the more meaningless—and what advantage does that bring to anyone?

    12For who knows what is good for a person in life, during the few days of their fleeting life? They pass like a shadow. Who can tell them what will happen under the sun after they are gone?

  • Gal 6:7-9
    3 verses
    72%

    7Do not be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows, that they will also reap.

    8The one who sows to their flesh will reap decay from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

    9Let us not grow weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

  • Eccl 8:16-17
    2 verses
    72%

    16When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to observe the work that is done on earth, even though people do not see sleep with their eyes day or night,

    17then I saw all the work of God, that no one can understand the work that is done under the sun. Despite all their efforts to search it out, no one can comprehend it. Even if the wise claim to know, they cannot truly understand it.

  • John 4:36-37
    2 verses
    71%

    36The one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps may rejoice together.

    37For in this the saying is true: 'One sows, and another reaps.'

  • Ps 129:7
    71%

    7with which the reaper does not fill his hand, nor the binder of sheaves his arms.

  • Ps 90:6
    71%

    6In the morning it flourishes and grows, but by evening it withers and dries up.

  • Eccl 3:9
    71%

    9What does the worker gain from all their toil?

  • 1 Cor 15:37
    70%

    37And what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare seed—perhaps of wheat or something else.

  • Eccl 4:6
    70%

    6Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.

  • Isa 28:24
    70%

    24Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he continually break up and harrow his ground?

  • Prov 27:1
    70%

    1Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day will bring.

  • Prov 11:24
    70%

    24One person gives freely and gains even more; another withholds what is right and comes to poverty.

  • Deut 22:9
    70%

    9Do not plant two kinds of seeds in your vineyard, or the entire harvest, both the crop you plant and the fruit of the vineyard, will be forfeited.

  • Eccl 3:2
    70%

    2A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.

  • Eccl 11:9
    69%

    9Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart be glad in the days of your prime. Follow the ways of your heart and the sights of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment.

  • Eccl 2:26
    69%

    26To the person who pleases Him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy, but to the sinner, He gives the task of gathering and storing wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

  • Gen 8:22
    69%

    22For as long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

  • Prov 3:27
    69%

    27Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due when it is within your power to act.

  • Prov 6:8
    69%

    8yet she prepares her food in the summer and gathers her provisions at harvest.

  • Lev 25:3
    69%

    3For six years, you may sow your field and prune your vineyard, and gather its produce;

  • Eccl 2:21
    69%

    21For there is a person who labors with wisdom, knowledge, and skill, but then must leave everything to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.

  • Ps 107:37
    69%

    37They sowed fields and planted vineyards, which yielded a fruitful harvest.

  • Eccl 3:6
    69%

    6A time to search and a time to give up; a time to keep and a time to throw away.

  • Ps 126:5-6
    2 verses
    69%

    5Those who sow in tears shall reap with joyful shouting.

    6The one who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will surely return with joyful shouting, carrying their sheaves.

  • Eccl 12:2
    69%

    2Before the sun, light, moon, and stars grow dark, and the clouds return after the rain.

  • Eccl 5:16
    69%

    16Throughout his days, he eats in darkness, with great frustration, sickness, and anger.

  • Ps 104:23
    69%

    23Man goes out to his work and to his labor until evening.

  • Eccl 9:1
    69%

    1So I reflected on all this and set my heart to examine it: that the righteous, the wise, and their deeds are in the hand of God. People do not know whether love or hatred awaits them; everything lies before them.

  • Eccl 8:7
    69%

    7Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell anyone what is to come?

  • Eccl 2:24
    68%

    24There is nothing better for a person than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in their work. This too, I realized, is from the hand of God.