Cast Your Bread upon the Waters
1 Cast your bread upon the waters,
for you will find it after many days.
2 Give a portion to seven, or even to eight,
for you pknow not what disaster may happen on earth.
3 If the clouds are full of rain,
they empty themselves on the earth,
and if a tree falls to the south or to the north,
in the place where the tree falls, there it will lie.
4 He who observes the wind will not sow,
and he who regards the clouds will not reap.
5 As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones in the womb1 of a woman with child, so you do not know the qwork of God who makes everything.
6 In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
7 Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes rto see the sun.
8 So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the sdays of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.2
9 Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and the tsight of your eyes. But know that for all these things God will bring you into ujudgment.
10 Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain3 from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.
I and the Father Are One
22 At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, 23 and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the jcolonnade of Solomon. 24 So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? kIf you are the Christ, tell us lplainly.” 25 Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name mbear witness about me, 26 but nyou do not believe because you are not among my sheep. 27 My sheep ohear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I pgive them eternal life, and they will never perish, and qno one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, rwho has given them to me,1 is sgreater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 tI and the Father are one.”
31 The Jews picked up stones uagain to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?” 33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for vblasphemy, wbecause you, being a man, xmake yourself God.” 34 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, y‘I said, you are gods’? 35 If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—zand Scripture cannot be broken— 36 do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ abecause I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 37 If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, bbelieve the works, that you may know and understand that cthe Father is in me and I am in the Father.” 39 Again they sought to darrest him, ebut he escaped from their hands.
40 He went away again across the Jordan to fthe place where John had been baptizing at first, and there he remained. 41 And many came to him. And they said, “John did no sign, but geverything that John said about this man was true.” 42 And hmany believed in him there.
