Ecclesiastes 4:3
Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the ma'aseh harah that is done under the shemesh.
Orthodox Jewish Bible
In The King James Version
In Context
2Wherefore I praised the mesim which are already dead more than the living ones which are yet alive.
Cross References
Job 3:16There the resha'im cease from troubling; 1 and there the weary are at rest. 1
Job 10:18Why then hast Thou brought me forth out of the rechem (womb)? 1 Oh that I had expired, and no eye had seen me! 1
Ecclesiastes 1:14I have seen all the ma'asim that are done under the shemesh; and, hinei, all is hevel and chasing after ruach (wind). 1
Ecclesiastes 6:3If an ish beget a hundredfold, and live shanim rabbot, so that rav be the yamim of his shanim, and his nefesh be not filled with hatovah, and also that he have no kevurah (grave); I say, that a nefel (stillborn) is better than he.
Jeremiah 9:2And they bend to the ready their leshon like their keshet (bow) for sheker; 1 but not for emunah have they prevailed in ha'aretz; 1 for they proceed from ra'ah to ra'ah, 1 and they know not Me, saith Hashem. 1
Matthew 24:19But oy to the ones with child and the ones with nursing infants in those days.
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 →