---
title: "Ecclesiastes 11 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/ecclesiastes/11/
description: "Exhortation to works of mercy, while we have time, to diligence in good… Ecclesiastes 11 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Ecclesiastes 11

Ecclesiastes 11 is chapter 11 of 12 in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Here are all 10 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> Exhortation to works of mercy, while we have time, to diligence in good, and to the remembrance of death and judgment.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Ecclesiastes 11 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Cast your bread over running waters. For, after a long time, you shall find it again.
2. Give a portion to seven, and indeed even to eight. For you do not know what evil may be upon the earth in the future.
3. If the clouds have been filled, they will pour forth rain upon the earth. If a tree falls to the south, or to the north, or to whatever direction it may fall, there it shall remain.
4. Whoever heeds the wind will not sow. And whoever considers the clouds will never reap.
5. In the same manner that you do not know the way of the spirit, nor the way that bones are joined together in the womb of a pregnant woman, so you do not know the works of God, who is the Maker of all.
6. In the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening, do not let your hand cease. For you do not know which of these may rise up, the one or the other. But if both rise up together, so much the better.
7. Light is pleasant, and it is delightful for the eyes to see the sun.
8. If a man lives for many years, and if he has rejoiced in all of these, he must remember the many days of the dark times, which, when they will have arrived, will accuse the past of vanity.
9. So then, rejoice, O young man, in your youth, and let your heart remain in what is good during the days of your youth. And walk in the ways of your heart, and with the perception of your eyes. And know that, concerning all these things, God will bring you to judgment.
10. Remove anger from your heart, and set aside evil from your flesh. For youth and pleasure are empty.

## Ecclesiastes 11 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Mitte panem tuum super transeuntes aquas, quia post tempora multa invenies illum.
2. Da partem septem necnon et octo, quia ignoras quid futurum sit mali super terram.
3. Si repletæ fuerint nubes, imbrem super terram effundent. Si ceciderit lignum ad austrum aut ad aquilonem, in quocumque loco ceciderit, ibi erit.
4. Qui observat ventum non seminat; et qui considerat nubes numquam metet.
5. Quomodo ignoras quæ sit via spiritus, et qua ratione compingantur ossa in ventre prægnantis, sic nescis opera Dei, qui fabricator est omnium.
6. Mane semina semen tuum, et vespere ne cesset manus tua: quia nescis quid magis oriatur, hoc aut illud; et si utrumque simul, melius erit.
7. Dulce lumen, et delectabile est oculis videre solem.
8. Si annis multis vixerit homo, et in his omnibus lætatus fuerit, meminisse debet tenebrosi temporis, et dierum multorum, qui cum venerint, vanitatis arguentur præterita.
9. Lætare ergo, juvenis, in adolescentia tua, et in bono sit cor tuum in diebus juventutis tuæ: et ambula in viis cordis tui, et in intuitu oculorum tuorum, et scito quod pro omnibus his adducet te Deus in judicium.
10. Aufer iram a corde tuo, et amove malitiam a carne tua: adolescentia enim et voluptas vana sunt.

## The saints

- “Enjoy yourself as much as you like, if only you keep from sin.” — St. John Bosco, The Companion of Youth, 1847 (On this theme: verse 9)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 3: The state of the soul is unchangeable when once she comes to heaven or hell: and a soul that departs this life in the state of grace, shall never fall from grace: as on the other side, a soul that dies out of the state of grace, shall never come to it. But this does not exclude a place of temporal punishments for such souls as die in the state of grace: yet not so as to be entirely pure: and therefore they shall be saved, indeed, yet so as by fire. 1 Cor. 3. 13, 14, 15.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sat, Sep 30, 2028 (computed): St. Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church — First Reading, Ecclesiastes 11:9—12:8

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).