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Scripture · Old Testament

Ecclesiastes 11:5

Ecclesiastes 11:5 is verse 5 of Ecclesiastes chapter 11, shown here in the Berean Standard Bible.

Berean Standard Bible

As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

Or As you do not know the way the spirit comes to the bones

BSB source and public domain terms

King James Version

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

World English Bible

As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.

Read in context

Ecclesiastes 11:3–7 · Berean Standard Bible

3 If the clouds are full, they will pour out rain upon the earth; whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where it falls, there it will lie.

4 He who watches the wind will fail to sow, and he who observes the clouds will fail to reap.

5 As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

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.

7 Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 11

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study Ecclesiastes 11:5

Read the commentary on Ecclesiastes 11

Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

John 3:8

The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Psalms 139:14

I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well.

Psalms 139:15

My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Ecclesiastes 7:24

What exists is out of reach and very deep. Who can fathom it?

Ecclesiastes 8:17

I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.

Job 5:9

the One who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.

Job 26:5

The dead tremble— those beneath the waters and those who dwell in them.

Job 26:6

Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.

Job 26:7

He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth upon nothing.

Job 26:8

He wraps up the waters in His clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under their own weight.

Job 26:9

He covers the face of the full moon, spreading over it His cloud.

Job 26:10

He has inscribed a horizon on the face of the waters at the boundary between light and darkness.

Job 26:11

The foundations of heaven quake, astounded at His rebuke.

Job 26:12

By His power He stirred the sea; by His understanding He shattered Rahab.

Job 26:13

By His breath the skies were cleared; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent.

Job 26:14

Indeed, these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint is the whisper we hear of Him! Who then can understand the thunder of His power?”

Job 36:24

Remember to magnify His work, which men have praised in song.

Job 36:25

All mankind has seen it; men behold it from afar.

Job 36:26

Indeed, God is great—beyond our knowledge; the number of His years is unsearchable.

Job 36:27

For He draws up drops of water which distill the rain from the mist,

Job 36:28

which the clouds pour out and shower abundantly on mankind.

Job 36:29

Furthermore, who can understand how the clouds spread out, how the thunder roars from His pavilion?

Job 36:30

See how He scatters His lightning around Him and covers the depths of the sea.

Job 36:31

For by these He judges the nations and provides food in abundance.

Job 36:32

He fills His hands with lightning and commands it to strike its mark.

Job 36:33

The thunder declares His presence; even the cattle regard the rising storm.

Job 37:23

The Almighty is beyond our reach; He is exalted in power! In His justice and great righteousness He does not oppress.

Job 38:4

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.

Job 38:5

Who fixed its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched a measuring line across it?

Job 38:6

On what were its foundations set, or who laid its cornerstone,

Job 38:7

while the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Job 38:8

Who enclosed the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb,

Job 38:9

when I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its blanket,

Job 38:10

when I fixed its boundaries and set in place its bars and doors,

Job 38:11

and I declared: ‘You may come this far, but no farther; here your proud waves must stop’?

Job 38:12

In your days, have you commanded the morning or assigned the dawn its place,

Job 38:13

that it might spread to the ends of the earth and shake the wicked out of it?

Job 38:14

The earth takes shape like clay under a seal; its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.

Job 38:15

Light is withheld from the wicked, and their upraised arm is broken.

Job 38:16

Have you journeyed to the vents of the sea or walked in the trenches of the deep?

Job 38:17

Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?

Job 38:18

Have you surveyed the extent of the earth? Tell Me, if you know all this.

Job 38:19

Where is the way to the home of light? Do you know where darkness resides,

Job 38:20

so you can lead it back to its border? Do you know the paths to its home?

Job 38:21

Surely you know, for you were already born! And the number of your days is great!

Job 38:22

Have you entered the storehouses of snow or observed the storehouses of hail,

Job 38:23

which I hold in reserve for times of trouble, for the day of war and battle?

Job 38:24

In which direction is the lightning dispersed, or the east wind scattered over the earth?

Job 38:25

Who cuts a channel for the flood or clears a path for the thunderbolt,

Job 38:26

to bring rain on a barren land, on a desert where no man lives,

Job 38:27

to satisfy the parched wasteland and make it sprout with tender grass?

Job 38:28

Does the rain have a father? Who has begotten the drops of dew?

Job 38:29

From whose womb does the ice emerge? Who gives birth to the frost from heaven,

Job 38:30

when the waters become hard as stone and the surface of the deep is frozen?

Job 38:31

Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?

Job 38:32

Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear and her cubs?

Job 38:33

Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set their dominion over the earth?

Job 38:34

Can you command the clouds so that a flood of water covers you?

Job 38:35

Can you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, ‘Here we are’?

Job 38:36

Who has put wisdom in the heart or given understanding to the mind?

Job 38:37

Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Or who can tilt the water jars of the heavens

Job 38:38

when the dust hardens into a mass and the clods of earth stick together?

Job 38:39

Can you hunt the prey for a lioness or satisfy the hunger of young lions

Job 38:40

when they crouch in their dens and lie in wait in the thicket?

Job 38:41

Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God as they wander about for lack of food?

Job 39:1

“Do you know when mountain goats give birth? Have you watched the doe bear her fawn?

Job 39:2

Can you count the months they are pregnant? Do you know the time they give birth?

Job 39:3

They crouch down and bring forth their young; they deliver their newborn.

Job 39:4

Their young ones thrive and grow up in the open field; they leave and do not return.

Job 39:5

Who set the wild donkey free? Who released the swift donkey from the harness?

Job 39:6

I made the wilderness his home and the salt flats his dwelling.

Job 39:7

He scorns the tumult of the city and never hears the shouts of a driver.

Job 39:8

He roams the mountains for pasture, searching for any green thing.

Job 39:9

Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will he stay by your manger at night?

Job 39:10

Can you hold him to the furrow with a harness? Will he plow the valleys behind you?

Job 39:11

Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?

Job 39:12

Can you trust him to bring in your grain and gather it to your threshing floor?

Job 39:13

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, but cannot match the pinions and feathers of the stork.

Job 39:14

For she leaves her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand.

Job 39:15

She forgets that a foot may crush them, or a wild animal may trample them.

Job 39:16

She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.

Job 39:17

For God has deprived her of wisdom; He has not endowed her with understanding.

Job 39:18

Yet when she proudly spreads her wings, she laughs at the horse and its rider.

Job 39:19

Do you give strength to the horse or adorn his neck with a mane?

Job 39:20

Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?

Job 39:21

He paws in the valley and rejoices in his strength; he charges into battle.

Job 39:22

He laughs at fear, frightened of nothing; he does not turn back from the sword.

Job 39:23

A quiver rattles at his side, along with a flashing spear and lance.

Job 39:24

Trembling with excitement, he devours the distance; he cannot stand still when the ram’s horn sounds.

Job 39:25

At the blast of the horn, he snorts with fervor. He catches the scent of battle from afar— the shouts of captains and the cry of war.

Job 39:26

Does the hawk take flight by your understanding and spread his wings toward the south?

Job 39:27

Does the eagle soar at your command and make his nest on high?

Job 39:28

He dwells on a cliff and lodges there; his stronghold is on a rocky crag.

Job 39:29

From there he spies out food; his eyes see it from afar.

Job 39:30

His young ones feast on blood; and where the slain are, there he is.”

Psalms 40:5

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders You have done, and the plans You have for us— none can compare to You— if I proclaim and declare them, they are more than I can count.

Psalms 92:5

How great are Your works, O LORD, how deep are Your thoughts!

Psalms 104:24

How many are Your works, O LORD! In wisdom You have made them all; the earth is full of Your creatures.

Isaiah 40:28

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.

Romans 11:33

O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

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