11:1 bread upon the waters. The Hebrew word for “bread” could also be used for the “grain” from which bread is made. The metaphor is that of spreading spiritual seed far and wide, trusting eventually to find its fruit in redeemed lives.

11:6 sow thy seed. This is the same message as in Ecclesiastes 11:1. Spiritual seed (“the word of God”—Luke 8:11) should not only be sown far and wide, but also in both morning and evening. Then it is “God that giveth the increase” (I Corinthians 3:7).