Why should a person act without waiting for perfect certainty?

The Preacher tells the listener to cast bread on running water and expect to find it after a long time. Give a portion to seven and also to eight, he says, because you do not know what evil may come. Clouds full of water bring rain, and a fallen tree remains where it falls.

Challoner reads the fallen tree as an image of a soul’s fixed state after death. His note says that someone who dies in grace does not later fall from grace, and someone who dies without grace does not later enter it. He also says this does not exclude a temporary punishment for someone who dies in grace but still needs purification, referring to 1 Corinthians 3:13–15. This is Challoner’s explanation of the image.

A person who watches the wind will not sow, and one who watches the clouds will not reap. The listener does not know the path of the spirit or how bones form in a pregnant woman’s womb. Nor can the listener know all the works of God. Sow in the morning and keep working in the evening: either effort may succeed, or both may do well.

Light is sweet, and seeing the sun is pleasant. Even someone who enjoys many years should remember the dark days and the passing of what has gone before. The young person is told to rejoice, follow the heart’s good, and walk in the ways of the eyes, while remembering that God will judge all these things. The chapter ends by calling for anger to be removed from the heart and evil from the flesh. Youth and pleasure also pass.