Ecclesiastes 11:5 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

Thou knowest not ... way of the spirit - how the soul animates the body. Thus the transition to the formation of the body "in the womb" is more natural than if we translated it "wind." Ecclesiastes 1:6; John 3:8 evidently refers to this, "The wind bloweth, etc.

Bones do grow. The passage, John 3:3-7, again accords with this (cf. Job 10:8-12).

Knowest not the works of God. Since thou art no judge of what is the way of God's operation, as yet invisible to us, thy part is to work that which He commands now, undeterred by the threatening aspect of the political and social "clouds."

Ecclesiastes 11:5

5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.