Ecclesiastes 4:1

Verse 1 of 16. The 4th of 12 chapters in Ecclesiastes, in Poetry and Wisdom.

1So 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.

2Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

3Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

4Again, 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.

5The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.

Read Ecclesiastes 4

Ecclesiastes 4:1 in the World English Bible

Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
Read Ecclesiastes 4:1 in the WEB

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 4:1

The troubles of their condition (v. 1); of these he speaks very feelingly and with compassion. It grieved him, 1. To see might prevailing against right, to see so much oppression done under the sun, to see servants, and labourers, and poor workmen, oppressed by their masters, who take advantage of their necessity to impose what terms they please upon them, debtors oppressed by cruel creditors and creditors too by fraudulent debtors, tenants oppressed by hard landlords and orphans by…

Read Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 4:1–3: The Prevalence of Oppression.

Pray Ecclesiastes 4:1 with someone reading it aloud.

Start praying with Pray.com

King James Version. Public domain. Set as prose throughout, including the poetry, because the text is published to us without its lines.