Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again.
Parallel translations
- WEB Cast your bread on the waters; for you shall find it after many days.
- KJV Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.
- NKJV Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.
- NASB Cast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you will find it after many days.
- NLT Send your grain across the seas, and in time, profits will flow back to you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Cast your bread on the waters, and you will find it after many days. Generous, venturesome action, though its return is unseen, will be rewarded in time.
Overview
This proverb is widely understood as encouraging either bold commercial venture or open-handed generosity that trusts God for unseen results. Either way it calls for faith-filled action despite uncertainty. It anticipates the gospel principle that liberal giving, entrusted to God, yields a sure harvest in his good time (Proverbs 11:24-25; 2 Corinthians 9:6-8).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Eccl 11:6Sow 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.
- Prov 19:17Kindness to the poor is a loan to the LORD, and He will repay the lender.
- Matt 10:42And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.”
- Heb 6:10For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.
- 2 Cor 9:6Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
- Isa 32:20Blessed are those who sow beside abundant waters, who let the ox and donkey range freely.
- Ps 41:1–2For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Blessed is the one who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble.
- Gal 6:8–10The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.
- Luke 14:14and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”
- Ps 126:5–6Those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy.
- Isa 32:8But a noble man makes honorable plans; he stands up for worthy causes.
- Prov 11:18The wicked man earns an empty wage, but he who sows righteousness reaps a true reward.
- Deut 15:7–11If there is a poor man among your brothers within any of the gates in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, then you are not to harden your heart or shut your hand from your poor brother.
- Prov 11:24–25One gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds what is right, only to become poor.
- Prov 22:9A generous man will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.
- Matt 10:13If the home is worthy, let your peace rest on it; but if it is not, let your peace return to you.
- Matt 25:40And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 11:1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.