Ecclesiastes 4:3
1 So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.
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.
4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
5 The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth 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
For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
Read in contextMatthew 24:19
And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
Read in contextEcclesiastes 6:3–5
If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
Read in contextJob 10:18–19
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
Read in contextJeremiah 9:2–3
Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
Read in contextEcclesiastes 2:17
Therefore I hated life; because the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me: for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Read in contextJob 3:22
Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
Read in contextPsalms 55:6–11
And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.
Read in context