Ecclesiastes 4:2

I congratulated those who were already dead, for the dead are better off than those who are still alive and being oppressed.

Free Bible Version

In The King James Version

Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

In Context

1Then I turned to consider all the ways people oppress others here on earth. Look at the tears of the oppressed—there's no one to comfort them! Powerful people oppress them, and there's no one to comfort them!

3But best of all are those who have never existed—they haven't seen the evil things people do to each other here on earth.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 4

Cross References

Job 3:11Why wasn't I stillborn? Why didn't I die at birth?

Job 3:21those who are waiting for death that does not come and who are looking for death more desperately than hunting for treasure?

Ecclesiastes 2:17So I ended up feeling disgusted with life because everything that happens here on earth is so distressing. It's so incomprehensible, like trying to control the wind.

Ecclesiastes 9:4But the living still have hope—a live dog is better than a dead lion!

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 →

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