Ecclesiastes 11:1

Cast thy bread upon the waters,.... As the wise man had often suggested that nothing was better for a man than to enjoy the good of his labour himself, he here advises to let others, the poor, have a

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Bread - bread-corn. As in the Lord's prayer, all things needful for the body and soul. Solomon reverts to the sentiment in Ecclesiastes 9:4.

CHAPTER 11 Liberality to the poor commanded. We know not what we may come to: God giveth rain plentifully; and our time of doing good is short: not too much regarding difficulties: the providence of God is full of mysterious events; which must quicken us to duty and diligence, . Life sweet; but the days of death shall be many, ,8. Young men are exhorted in the midst of their delights to think of the day of judgment, ,10. Cast thy bread upon the waters. Solomon having discovered divers vanities, and amongst others the vanity of heaping up riches, he now teacheth us that it is our interest as well as duty, not so much to lay them up, as to lay them out in pious and charitable uses; and having taught us the true and best use of worldly things, for our present comfort and benefit, which is to enjoy them with a cheerful and contented mind, he now directs us to the best improvement of them, for our future and greater advantage; and having acquainted us with our duty towards our superiors, he now directs us in our carriage towards our inferiors, and especially to such of them as are poor. The sense of these words is either, 1. Cast thy seed (which is here called bread, as it is also , and elsewhere) beside (for so the Hebrew particle al is oft used) the waters, i.e. either by the river’ s side, or in moist and waterish grounds, which usually are very fruitful. Or, 2. Cast (freely and liberally bestow) thy bread (i.e. thy money or provisions, which are oft signified by the name of bread. By saying thy bread, he cautions us that we give away only that which is our own, and not that which is another’ s; as they do who give either what they get from others by fraud or power, or what they owe to others, and are unable to pay, and so exercise charity to the hinderance of justice, or of the payment of their just debts) upon the waters, i.e. upon those poor creatures upon whom, by reason of their unthankfulness or inability to make any returns to thee, it may seem to be as utterly lost as the seed which a man casts into the sea or river. This sense agrees much better, 1. With the words; for he doth not barely mention the waters, ( for then the particle al might have been translated beside,) but the face, i.e. the surface or top, of the waters, in which and such-like cases al constantly signifies upon. 2. With the design and scope of the place, which is to persuade men to be liberal and charitable, notwithstanding the discouragements which they meet with in so doing, of which see the next clause, and the next verse.

Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.Ver. 1. Cast thy bread.] Thine own well gotten goods. Alms must not be given, said a martyr, until it have sweat in a man’ s hand. "Let him labour, working with his hands," saith the apostle, "that he may have to give to him that needeth." And the bountiful man giveth of his bread to the poor, saith Solomon. God hateth to have ex rapina holocaustum, a sacrifice of things got by rapine and robbery; "With such sacrifices God is not well pleased." Wherefore, if thou hast of thine own, give; if not, better for thee to gratify none than to grate upon any, saith Augustine. When our Henry III (an oppressing prince) had sent a load of frieze to the friar minors to clothe them, they returned the same with this message, that he ought not to give alms of what he had rent from the poor, neither would they accept of that abominable gift. The Hebrew word signifying alms signifies properly justice, to intimate that the matter of our alms should be goods justly gotten. Hence also the Jews call their alms box Kuphashel tsedaka, the chest of justice. Into this box or basket, if thou cast but bread (so it be thy bread), brown bread, such as thou hast, and then wait for the Lord, when he will return from the wedding with a full hand, thou shalt be fed supernae mensae copiosis deliciis, as one saith, with the abundant dainties of the heavenly table. Upon the waters.] Heb., Upon the face of the waters, where it may seem clearly cast away; as seed sown upon the sea, or a thing thrown down Avon, as we say, no profit or praise to be had by it. Or upon the waters, i.e., upon strangers (if necessary) whom we never saw, and are never likely to see again. Or, "upon the waters," i.e., upon such as being hunger bitten, or hardly bestead, do water their plants, being fed "with bread of tears." To this sense Munster renders the words thus, Mitte panem tuum super facies aquas, sc., emittentes, Cast thy bread upon faces watered with tears; or, "upon the waters," upon the surface of the waters, that it may be carried into the ocean, where the multitude of waters is gathered together; so shall thine alms, carried into heaven, be found in the ocean of eternity, where there is a confluence of all comforts and contentments. Or, lastly, "upon the waters," i.e., in loca irrigua, upon grounds well watered - moist and fertile soil, such as is that by the river Nile, where they do but throw in the seed, and they have four rich harvests in less than four months; or as that in the land of Shinar (where Babel was founded, Genesis 11:1-9), that returns, if Herodotus and Pliny may be believed, the seed beyond credulity.

XI. (1) In this section the preacher is drawing to a close, and he brings out practical lessons very different from those which views of life like his have suggested to others. From the uncertainty of the results of human effort, he infers that we ought the more diligently to make trial of varied forms of exertion, in order that this or that may succeed. From the instability of human happiness, he draws the lesson that we ought to enjoy freely such happiness as life affords, yet with a temperate and chastened joy, and mindful of the account we shall have to render. The most popular explanation of Ecc 11:1 is, that the figure is taken from the casting of seed on irrigated lands, as, for instance, in Egypt before the waters of the Nile have subsided; and that the duty of beneficence is here inculcated. We are to sow our benefits broadcast, and be assured we shall have a harvest of reward. It is easier to raise objections to this interpretation than to improve on it. That the word translated “bread” is sometimes used in the sense of seed corn, see Isaiah 28:28; Isaiah 30:23; Psalms 104:14. It is objected that the words “cast on the waters” are, literally, “send over the face of the waters,” the word “send” being nowhere else used in the sense of sowing. It has been remarked that in the East bread is used in the shape of light cakes, which would float on water; and the text has been understood as directing the casting of such cakes into a running stream—an irrational proceeding, not likely to occur to any but one to whom this text might have suggested it, and not offering ground for expectation that he who so cast his bread would find it again. It has been less absurdly proposed to understand the text as advising maritime enterprise; but the word “bread” does not harmonise with this explanation. There is nothing else in the book according with such advice; and the next verse, about “the evil that shall be upon the earth,” shows that the writer was not thinking of the dangers of the sea. I believe, therefore, that Ecclesiastes 11:6, which speaks distinctly of the sowing of seed, is the best commentary on the present verse, which means, cast thy seed, even though thou canst not see where it will fall. Possibly the application of the figure is not to be restricted to acts of beneficence; but the next verse may lead us to think that these are primarily intended, and to these especially the encouragement at the end of the verse applies; for in other cases this book gives a less cheerful view of the possible success of human plans.

CHAPTER XI Give alms to all, 1-4. The works of God unknown to man, 5. Diligence necessary, 6. Prosperity frequently succeeded by adversity, 7, 8. There will be a day of judgment, 9, 10. NOTES ON CHAP. XI Verse 1. Cast thy bread upon the waters] An allusion to the sowing of rice; which was sown upon muddy ground, or ground covered with water, and trodden in by the feet of cattle: it thus took root, and grew, and was found after many days in a plentiful harvest. Give alms to the poor, and it will be as seed sown in good ground. God will cause thee afterwards to receive it with abundant increase. The Targum understands it of giving bread to poor sailors. The Vulgate and my old Bible have the same idea. Send thi brede upon men passing waters.

1. Cast thy bread upon the waters] The book, as it draws nearer to its close, becomes more and more enigmatic, and each single verse is as a parable and dark saying. It is not to be wondered at, in such a case, that interpreters should, after their nature, read their own thoughts between the lines and so “find what they have sought.” This precept accordingly has been taken by some commentators (e.g. Grδtz) as recommending an unrestrained licentiousness. By others it has been raised almost to the level of the counsel which bids us “do good, hoping for nothing again, even to the unthankful and the evil” (Matthew 5:44-46; Luke 6:32-35). The latter is, it need hardly be said, infinitely more in accordance with the context and with the conclusion to which the writer is drawing near. Here again we find guidance in the parallelism of Greek thought. As Lowth pointed out (De Sac. Poes. Heb. x.) the words refer to the Greek proverbial phrase σπείρεινἐπὶπόντῳ (“to sow in the ocean”) as indicating a thankless labour. So Theognis, v. 105, Δειλοὺςδʼ ? εὖἔρδοντιματαιοτάτηχάριςἔστιν,Ἴσονγὰρσπείρεινπόντονἀλὸςπολιῆς.Οὔτεγὰρἄνπόντονσπείοωνβαθὺλήϊονἀμῶς,Οὔτεκακοὺςεὖδρῶνεὖπάλινἀντιλάβοις.“Vain is thy bounty, giving to the base,Like scattering seed upon the salt sea’s plain;Sowing the sea, thou shalt no harvest reap,Nor, giving to the vile, reward shalt gain.”Other parallels are found (1) in the Aramaic version of the proverbs of Sirach “Cast thy bread upon the water and the land, and at last thou shalt find it again” (Dukes, Rabbin. Blumenl. p. 73). (2) In an Arabic proverb, the moral of a long legend narrating how Mohammed the son of Hassan had been in the daily habit of throwing loaves into a river, how the life of an adopted son of the Caliph Mutewekjil, who had narrowly escaped drowning by clambering to a rock, was thus preserved, and how Mohammed saw in this a proof of the proverb he had learnt in his youth “Do good; cast thy bread upon the waters, and one day thou shall be rewarded” (Diez, Denkwόrdigkeiten von Asien, i. p. 106, quoted by Dukes, ut supra). (3) In a Turkish proverb, also quoted by Dukes from Diez, “Do good, cast thy bread upon the water. If the fish know it not, yet the Creator knows.” The writer holds himself aloof from the selfish prudence of the maxim of Theognis, and bids men not to be afraid “to cast their bread (the generic term stands for “corn,” as in Genesis 41:54; Isaiah 28:28) even upon the face of the thankless waters.” Sooner or later they shall reap as they have sown. Comp. 2 Corinthians 9:6-10.

The verse means: “Show hospitality, even though the corresponding return of hospitality to you may seem improbable; nevertheless, be hospitable in faith.” Compare Luke 14:13-14; Hebrews 13:2.

1. Cast thy bread upon the waters — This metaphor is to be explained from the form of eastern loaves, which from all time have been thin and flat, and float off like shingles on a stream.