Ecclesiastes 11:6

Sow your seed in the morning, and do not rest your hands in the evening, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or if both will equally prosper.

Berean Standard Bible

Follow its threads on the canvas →

Study note

Setting — The Preacher addresses a reader who might be tempted to idle or to stake all on a single venture, situated between the unknowability of God's work (11:5) and the sweetness of light (11:7).

The words — The imperative זְרַע (zeraʿ, "sow") drives the verse, while the negative command אַל תַּנַּח (ʾal tannach, "do not give rest to") frames the evening half as a refusal to let the hand go still.

The thread — Haggai 1:6 presents the same agricultural labor with a negative result ("planted much, harvested little"), while Isaiah 55:10 and 2 Corinthians 9:10 anchor the sowing metaphor in God's faithfulness to supply and multiply.

Why it lands — The verse does not promise success; it commands continued labor in the face of genuine uncertainty, asking the reader to keep working rather than to calculate which venture will pay off.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James 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.

Cross-references

2 Corinthians 9:10 Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your store of seed and will increase the harvest of your righteousness.
Isaiah 55:10 For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat,
Haggai 1:6 You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but never get warm. You earn wages to put into a bag pierced through.”
Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
Zechariah 8:11 But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as I did in the past,” declares the LORD of Hosts.
John 4:36 Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together.
1 Corinthians 3:5 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.
Haggai 2:17 I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you did not turn to Me, declares the LORD.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction.