Chapter 11: Cast your brad on the waters, and in due time you will be repaid. Give freely to many, for you do not know what may come.

In verse 5 some versions can be misleading: The Hebrew is capable of more than one rendering. It is probably best to say that: Just as you do not know where the wind comes from, and how the bones of a child are formed in the womb of the mother, so also you cannot understand many things. The RSV here reads: "As you do not know how the spirit comes to the bones in the womb." It is for certain wrong to take these words as meaning we do not know at what point in the development a soul comes to the fetus. The comparison suggests otherwise, and even more important, the very speculation as to the time of animation would be beyond the thought world of Q. It would presuppose a clear knowledge of the two part nature of man- which did not come until later on in the OT.

So Q returns to an earlier theme: enjoy what you can while you can. and then chapter 12, a lyrically beautiful piece: