Ecclesiastes 4:3

Discouragement and depression

¹ Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.

² So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

⁴ I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

⁵ The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.

Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
KJV: Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
WEB: Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
ASV: yea, better than them both [did I esteem] him that hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
DARBY: and more fortunate than both is he who hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
BLB: and better than both [is] the one who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun!

ÅB: men fremfor dem begge priste jeg lykkelig den som enda ikke er til, som ikke har sett de onde gjerninger som skjer under solen.
OTB: Men bedre enn begge er den som aldri er blitt født, som ikke har vært vitne til de onde gjerninger som blir gjort under solen.
B1930: men fremfor dem begge priste jeg lykkelig den som ennu ikke er til, som ikke har sett de onde gjerninger som skjer under solen.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Luke 23:29
Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
Read in context
Matthew 24:19
How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
Read in context
Ecclesiastes 6:3–5
A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
Read in context
Job 10:18–19
Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
Read in context
Jeremiah 9:2–3
If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.
Read in context
Ecclesiastes 2:17
So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
Read in context
Job 3:22
who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?
Read in context
Psalms 55:6–11
I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.
Read in context