Isaiah 19:5-7

19:5 The water of the sea will be dried up,

and the river will dry up and be empty. ¹ 

19:6 The canals ²  will stink; ³ 

the streams of Egypt will trickle and then dry up;

the bulrushes and reeds will decay,

19:7 along with the plants by the mouth of the river. ⁴ 

All the cultivated land near the river

will turn to dust and be blown away. ⁵ 

Isaiah 30:23

30:23 He will water the seed you plant in the ground,

and the ground will produce crops in abundance. ⁶ 

At that time ⁷  your cattle will graze in wide pastures.

Isaiah 55:10-11

55:10 ⁸ The rain and snow fall from the sky

and do not return,

but instead water the earth

and make it produce and yield crops,

and provide seed for the planter and food for those who must eat.

55:11 In the same way, the promise that I make

does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. ⁹ 

No, it is realized as I desire

and is fulfilled as I intend.” ¹⁰ 

Ecclesiastes 11:1

Ignorance of the Future Demands Diligence in the Present

11:1 Send ¹¹  your grain ¹²  overseas, ¹³ 

for after many days you will get a return. ¹⁴ 

Acts 2:41

2:41 So those who accepted ¹⁵  his message ¹⁶  were baptized, and that day about three thousand people ¹⁷  were added. ¹⁸ 

Acts 4:4

4:4 But many of those who had listened to ¹⁹  the message ²⁰  believed, and the number of the men ²¹  came to about five thousand.

Acts 5:14

5:14 More and more believers in the Lord were added to their number, ²²  crowds of both men and women.

Acts 5:1

The Judgment on Ananias and Sapphira

5:1 Now a man named Ananias, together with Sapphira his wife, sold a piece of property.

Colossians 3:6

3:6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. ²³ 

James 3:18

3:18 And the fruit that consists of righteousness ²⁴  is planted ²⁵  in peace among ²⁶  those who make peace.

[19:5]  ¹ tn Heb “will dry up and be dry.” Two synonyms are joined for emphasis.

[19:6]  ² tn Heb “rivers” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, CEV “streams”; TEV “channels.”

[19:6]  ³ tn The verb form appears as a Hiphil in the Qumran scroll 1QIsa^a; the form in MT may be a so-called “mixed form,” reflecting the Hebrew Hiphil stem and the functionally corresponding Aramaic Aphel stem. See HALOT 276 s.v. I זנח.

[19:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “the plants by the river, by the mouth of the river.”

[19:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “will dry up, [being] scattered, and it will vanish.”

[30:23]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he will give rain for your seed which you plant in the ground, and food [will be] the produce of the ground, and it will be rich and abundant.”

[30:23]  ⁷ tn Or “in that day” (KJV).

[55:10]  ⁸ tn This verse begins in the Hebrew text with כִּי כַּאֲשֶׁר (ki ka’asher, “for, just as”), which is completed by כֵּן (ken, “so, in the same way”) at the beginning of v. 11. For stylistic reasons, this lengthy sentence is divided up into separate sentences in the translation.

[55:11]  ⁹ tn Heb “so is the word which goes out from my mouth, it does not return to empty.” “Word” refers here to divine promises, like the ones made just prior to and after this (see vv. 7b, 12-13).

[55:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “but it accomplishes what I desire, and succeeds [on the mission] which I send it.”

[11:1]  ¹¹ tn The verb שָׁלַח (shalakh, “to send; to cast”) refers to the action of sending something to someone (e.g., Neh 8:12; HALOT 1995 s.v. שׁלח). The term is traditionally rendered here as “cast” (KJV, NAB, RES, ASV, NASB, NIV); however, some render it “send” (NJPS, NRSV, NEB). LXX uses ἀπόστειλον (aposteilon, “send”).

[11:1]  ¹² tn Heb “your bread.” The term לֶחֶם (lekhem) is traditionally rendered “bread” (KJV, NAB, RSV, NRSV, ASV, NASB, NIV, NJPS). However, 11:1-2 seems to deal with exporting goods overseas (D. R. Glenn, “Ecclesiastes,” BKCOT, 1002-3). It is better to take לֶחֶם (“bread”) as a metonymy of product, standing for the grain and wheat from which bread is produced (e.g., Gen 41:54-55; 47:13, 15, 17, 19; 49:20; Num 15:19; 2 Kgs 18:32; Isa 28:28; 30:23; 36:17; 55:10; Jer 5:17; Ezek 48:18; Job 28:5; Ps 104:14; Prov 28:3); see HALOT 526 s.v. 1; BDB 537 s.v. 1.b. It is taken this way by several translations: “grain” (NEB) and “goods” (Moffatt). Qoheleth encouraged the export of grain products overseas in international trade.

[11:1]  ¹³ tn Heb “upon the surface of the waters.” This is traditionally viewed as extolling generosity from which a reward will be reaped. On the other hand, some scholars suggest that the imagery deals with commercial business through maritime trade. M. Jastrow took this verse as advice to take risks in business by trusting one’s goods or ships that will after many days return with a profit (A. Cohen, The Five Megilloth [SoBB], 181). Sea trade was risky in the ancient Near East, but it brought big returns to its investors (e.g., 1 Kgs 9:26-28; 10:22; Ps 107:23); see D. R. Glenn, “Ecclesiastes,” BKCOT, 1002-3. The verse is rendered thus: “Send your grain across the seas, and in time you will get a return” (NEB); or “Trust your goods far and wide at sea, till you get a good return after a while” (Moffatt).

[11:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “find it.”

[2:41]  ¹⁵ tn Or “who acknowledged the truth of.”

[2:41]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “word.”

[2:41]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “souls” (here an idiom for the whole person).

[2:41]  ¹⁸ tn Or “were won over.”

[4:4]  ¹⁹ tn Or “had heard.”

[4:4]  ²⁰ tn Or “word.”

[4:4]  ²¹ tn In the historical setting it is likely that only men are referred to here. The Greek term ἀνήρ (anhr) usually refers to males or husbands rather than people in general. Thus to translate “of the people” would give a false impression of the number, since any women and children were apparently not included in the count.

[5:14]  ²² tn Or “More and more believers were added to the Lord.”

[3:6]  ²³ tc The words ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθείας (epi tou" Juiou" th" apeiqeia", “on the sons of disobedience”) are lacking in Ì⁴⁶ B b sa, but are found in א A C D F G H I Ψ 075 0278 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy bo. The words are omitted by several English translations (NASB, NIV, ESV, TNIV). This textual problem is quite difficult to resolve. On the one hand, the parallel account in Eph 5:6 has these words, thus providing scribes a motive for adding them here. On the other hand, the reading without the words may be too hard: The ἐν οἷς (en |oi") of v. 7 seems to have no antecedent without υἱούς already in the text, although it could possibly be construed as neuter referring to the vice list in v. 5. Further, although the witness of B is especially important, there are other places in which B and Ì⁴⁶ share errant readings of omission. Nevertheless, the strength of the internal evidence against the longer reading is at least sufficient to cause doubt here. The decision to retain the words in the text is less than certain.

[3:18]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the fruit of righteousness,” meaning righteous living as a fruit, as the thing produced.

[3:18]  ²⁵ tn Grk “is sown.”

[3:18]  ²⁶ tn Or “for,” or possibly “by.”