Ecclesiastes 4:2
Verse 2 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.
6Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
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Ecclesiastes 4:2 in the World English Bible
Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.Read Ecclesiastes 4:2 in the WEB
Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 4:2
Being thus hardly used, they are tempted to hate and despise life, and to envy those that are dead and in their graves, and to wish they had never been born (v. 2, 3); and Solomon is ready to agree with them, for it serves to prove that all is vanity and vexation, since life itself is often so; and if we disregard it, in comparison with the favour and fruition of God (as St.
Read Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 4:1–3: The Prevalence of Oppression.
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King James Version. Public domain. Set as prose throughout, including the poetry, because the text is published to us without its lines.