"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." — Ecclesiastes 4:3

Ecclesiastes 4:3 · 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.”

— Ecclesiastes 4:3

Verse 2

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

Verse 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. {every...: Heb. all the rightness of work} {for this...: Heb. this is the envy of a man from his neighbour}

Ecclesiastes 4 — Context

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. {side: Heb. hand}

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.

The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.

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.

Matthew 24:19

And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

Ecclesiastes 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.

Jeremiah 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.

Job 3:22

Which rejoice exceedingly, {and} are glad, when they can find the grave?

Psalms 55:6-11

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! {for then} would I fly away, and be at rest.

Jeremiah 20:17-18

Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb {to be} always great {with me}.

Ecclesiastes 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.