What Does Ecclesiastes 11:6 Mean?
In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not set your hand down, for you do not perceive whether this or that thrives, or whether both, as one, are good.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
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.THE KEY
The verse speaks sowing and seed with the same Hebrew root, binding the act to what is planted even as the outcome stays hidden.
THE MEANING
Your day holds more than one beginning: seed goes out in the morning, and your hand does not come to rest in the evening. You do not know which effort will turn out well, or whether both will; the verse holds continuing work and hidden outcomes together in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that you must identify the sure thing before you invest yourself: the verse says you cannot know in advance which sowing will prosper.
THE ROOT
זְרַע
zera
GROWS FROM
זרע
zara
To sow; the same root also names seed and offspring.
“sow” in this verse is zera. The verse uses this root both for the act of sowing and for “thy seed.” English separates the work from what is planted, while Hebrew lets them echo as one word-family: the act releases a beginning whose outcome remains unknown.
ALSO GROWS
zera: Seed; offspring.
זֶרַע
The seed itself carries the same root as the command to sow, joining the action to what is planted.
zorea: One who sows; a sower.
זֹרֵעַ
The sower is formed from the same root, keeping the person, the act, and the seed linguistically close.
תַּנַּח
tannach
GROWS FROM
נוח
nuach
To rest, settle, or come to rest.
“set down” in this verse is tannach. The Hebrew phrase can be read as “do not let your hand rest.” What English calls withholding is pictured as allowing the hand to settle; the verse holds ongoing work beside outcomes that cannot be known in advance.
ALSO GROWS
menuchah: Rest; a place of rest.
מְנוּחָה
This noun makes the root’s sense of resting visible beside the verse’s image of a hand that does not settle.
Noach: Noah; his name is linked in Genesis with rest or relief.
נֹחַ
The name carries the same rest-root, echoing the contrast with the hand that is not allowed to come to rest.
יִכְשַׁר
yikhsar
GROWS FROM
כשר
kashar
To be fit, suitable, or successful; to turn out well.
“thrives” in this verse is yikhsar. The word rendered “prosper” carries the sense of proving fit or turning out well. The verse does not identify beforehand which sowing will succeed; it names that uncertainty as part of the field.
ALSO GROWS
kasher: Fit; proper; suitable.
כָּשֵׁר
This form makes clear that the root’s image of success includes something proving fit or right for its purpose.
kishron: Skill; success or advantage.
כִּשְׁרוֹן
This related noun shows the root extending toward what a person can do well and what yields a favorable result.
THE PATTERN
Sowing continues while the growth and outcome remain beyond the sower’s full knowledge.
Whoever watches the breath does not sow; whoever looks upon the clouds does not reap.And he said, So is the governance of God, as when a person throws seed into the soil, and he sleeps and wakes night and day, and the seed sprouts and stretches up, and he does not know how.I planted, Apollos gave to drink, but God made it grow.THE THREAD
All the days of the earth, sowing and reaping, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not stop.“Seedtime” carries the same זרע (zara) root found in Ecclesiastes’ sowing and seed. Genesis places seedtime within an enduring rhythm of the earth; Ecclesiastes speaks from inside that rhythm, where sowing continues before anyone knows which seed will prove good.
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