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If a person waits for perfect weather,
    he will never plant his seeds.
And if he is afraid that every cloud will bring rain,
    he will never harvest his crops.

You don’t know where the wind will blow.
    And you don’t know how a baby grows in its mother’s body.
In the same way, God certainly made all things.
    But you can’t understand what he is doing.
Begin planting early in the morning,
    and don’t stop working until evening.
This is because you don’t know which things you do will succeed.
    It is even possible that everything you do will succeed.

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Whoever watches the wind will not plant;
    whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.

As you do not know the path of the wind,(A)
    or how the body is formed[a] in a mother’s womb,(B)
so you cannot understand the work of God,
    the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning,
    and at evening let your hands not be idle,(C)
for you do not know which will succeed,
    whether this or that,
    or whether both will do equally well.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 11:5 Or know how life (or the spirit) / enters the body being formed