Ecclesiastes 4:3

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

Free Bible Version

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

2I congratulated those who were already dead, for the dead are better off than those who are still alive and being oppressed.

4I observed that every skill in work comes from competition with others. Once again this is hard to understand, like trying to hold on to the elusive wind.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 4

Cross References

Job 3:16Why wasn't I a miscarriage, buried in secret, a baby who never saw the light?

Job 10:18So why did you allow me to be born? I wish that I had died, and nobody had ever seen me!

Ecclesiastes 1:14I examined everything people do here on earth, and discovered that it's all so temporary—trying to understand it is like trying to pin down the wind!

Ecclesiastes 6:3A man could have one hundred children, and grow old, but it wouldn't matter how long his life was if he couldn't enjoy it and at the end receive a decent burial. I would say that a stillborn child would be better off than him.

Jeremiah 9:2I wish I had a temporary shelter in the desert—I would give up on my people and leave them, because they're all adulterers, a bunch of traitors!

Matthew 24:19How awful it will be for those who are pregnant, and those who are nursing babies at that time!

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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