1 Put your money into trade across the ocean. After a while you will earn something from it.
2 Give shares of what you earn to a lot of people. After all, you don't know what great trouble might come on the land.
3 Clouds that are full of water pour rain down on the earth. A tree might fall to the south or the north. It will stay in the place where it falls.
4 Anyone who keeps on watching the wind won't plant seeds. Anyone who keeps looking at the clouds won't gather crops.
5 You don't know the path the wind takes. You don't know how a baby is made inside its mother. So you can't understand how God works either. He made everything.
6 In the morning plant your seeds. In the evening keep your hands busy. You don't know what will succeed. It may be one or the other. Or both might do equally well.
7 Light is sweet. People enjoy being out in the sun.
8 No matter how many years a man might live, let him enjoy all of them. But let him remember the dark days. There will be many of them. Nothing that's going to happen will have any meaning.
9 Young man, be happy while you are still young. Let your heart be joyful while you are still strong. Do what your heart tells you to do. Go after what your eyes look at. But I want you to know that God will judge you for everything you do.