Ecclesiastes 11:2
Give a portion to seven, and indeed even to eight. For you do not know what evil may be upon the earth in the future.
Catholic Public Domain Version
In The King James Version
Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth.
In Context
1Cast your bread over running waters. For, after a long time, you shall find it again.
Cross References
1 Samuel 25:8Question your servants, and they will tell you. Now therefore, may your servants find favor in your eyes. For we have arrived on a good day. Whatever your hand will find, give it to your servants and to your son David.’”
Esther 9:19But in truth, those Jews who were staying in unwalled towns and villages, appointed the fourteenth day of the month Adar for celebration and gladness, so as to rejoice on that day and send one another portions of their feasts and their meals.
Job 5:19He will deliver you into six tribulations, and in the seventh, evil will not touch you.
Proverbs 6:16Six things there are that the Lord hates, and the seventh, his soul detests:
Micah 5:5And this man will be our peace, when the Assyrian will come into our land, and when he will trample on our houses; and we will raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men.
Matthew 18:22Jesus said to him: “I do not say to you, even seven times, but even seventy times seven times.
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 11:2-7
The Obligations to Be Liberal; Answers to Objections against Liberality. 1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. 2 Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. 3 If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. 4 He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall… Read the whole commentary →