Ecclesiastes 4:3

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

Berean Standard Bible

In The King James Version

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.

In Context

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

4I 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.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 4

Cross References

Job 3:16Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?

Job 10:18Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!

Ecclesiastes 1:14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 6:3A 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.

Jeremiah 9:2If 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.

Matthew 24:19How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 4:2-4

The Prevalence of Oppression. 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. 3 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. Solomon had a large soul ( 1 Kings… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Ecclesiastes 4:3