1 Release your bread {lakhmekha: source of sustenance} onto the face of the waters, because after many days {yamim: long interval} you will find it again.
2 Share out a portion to seven {shiv'ah: symbol of completeness}, and even to eight, because you do not know what calamity {ra'ah: calamity or disaster} may come upon the earth.
3 If the clouds {avim: rain-laden} are full of rain, they pour it out upon the earth; and if a tree falls to the south or to the north, wherever the tree falls, there {sham: fixed, unmoved} it will remain.
4 The one who keeps watching the wind {ruach: symbolic uncertainty} will not sow, and the one who keeps gazing {ro-eh: attentive watching} at the clouds will not reap.
5 Just as you do not know the way of the wind {ruach: wind or spirit}, nor how bones take shape in the womb of the expectant mother, so you do not know the work of God {Elohim, Mysterious Creator} who makes all things.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not let your hand {yad: symbol of action and effort} rest, for you do not know which will prosper—this or that—or whether both will be alike good {tovim: embodying beneficial outcome or blessing}.
7 Truly, the light is sweet, and it is beneficial for the eyes to gaze {lirot: poetic infinitive of sight} at the sun {hashemesh: physical source of light}.
8 For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice {yismach: exuberant celebration} in all of them; but let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that comes is vanity {havel: fleeting emptiness}.
9 Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart {lev: inner desire} do you good in the days of your youth; walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes; but know that for all these things God {Elohim, Ultimate Judge} will bring you into judgment.
10 And remove sorrow {kaas: inner vexation} from your heart, and turn away pain from your flesh; for childhood and the dawn of youth are vanity {havel: fleeting vapor}.