Ecclesiastes 4:1

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Ecclesiastes 4:1–3 · Berean Standard Bible

1 Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.

2 So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

3 But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

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Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Job 6:29

Reconsider; do not be unjust. Reconsider, for my righteousness is at stake.

Malachi 3:18

So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

Ecclesiastes 3:16

Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.

Ecclesiastes 5:8

If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.

Ecclesiastes 7:7

Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

Exodus 1:13

They worked the Israelites ruthlessly

Exodus 1:14

and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.

Exodus 1:16

“When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools. If the child is a son, kill him; but if it is a daughter, let her live.”

Exodus 1:22

Then Pharaoh commanded all his people: “Every son born to the Hebrews you must throw into the Nile, but every daughter you may allow to live.”

Exodus 2:23

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned and cried out under their burden of slavery, and their cry for deliverance from bondage ascended to God.

Exodus 2:24

So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Exodus 5:16

No straw has been given to your servants, yet we are told, ‘Make bricks!’ Look, your servants are being beaten, but the fault is with your own people.”

Exodus 5:17

“You are slackers!” Pharaoh replied. “Slackers! That is why you keep saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to the LORD.’

Exodus 5:18

Now get to work. You will be given no straw, yet you must deliver the full quota of bricks.”

Exodus 5:19

The Israelite foremen realized they were in trouble when they were told, “You must not reduce your daily quota of bricks.”

Deuteronomy 28:33

A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.

Deuteronomy 28:48

you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

Judges 4:3

Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD, because Jabin had nine hundred chariots of iron, and he had harshly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

Judges 10:7

So the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and Ammonites,

Judges 10:8

who that very year harassed and oppressed the Israelites, and did so for eighteen years to all the Israelites on the other side of the Jordan in Gilead, the land of the Amorites.

Nehemiah 5:1

About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

Nehemiah 5:2

Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous. We must get grain in order to eat and stay alive.”

Nehemiah 5:3

Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our homes to get grain during the famine.”

Nehemiah 5:4

Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards.

Nehemiah 5:5

We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless to redeem them because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

Job 24:7

Without clothing, they spend the night naked; they have no covering against the cold.

Job 24:8

Drenched by mountain rains, they huddle against the rocks for want of shelter.

Job 24:9

The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast; the nursing child of the poor is seized for a debt.

Job 24:10

Without clothing, they wander about naked. They carry the sheaves, but still go hungry.

Job 24:11

They crush olives within their walls; they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.

Job 24:12

From the city, men groan, and the souls of the wounded cry out, yet God charges no one with wrongdoing.

Psalms 10:9

He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net.

Psalms 10:10

They are crushed and beaten down; the hapless fall prey to his strength.

Proverbs 28:3

A destitute leader who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain that leaves no food.

Proverbs 28:15

Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people.

Proverbs 28:16

A leader who lacks judgment is also a great oppressor, but he who hates dishonest profit will prolong his days.

Isaiah 5:7

For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.

Isaiah 51:23

I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to be traversed.”

Isaiah 59:7

Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

Isaiah 59:13

rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.

Isaiah 59:14

So justice is turned away, and righteousness stands at a distance. For truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty cannot enter.

Isaiah 59:15

Truth is missing, and whoever turns from evil becomes prey. The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice.

Malachi 3:5

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Psalms 42:3

My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”

Psalms 42:9

I say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?”

Psalms 80:5

You fed them with the bread of tears and made them drink the full measure of their tears.

Psalms 102:8

All day long my enemies taunt me; they ridicule me and curse me.

Psalms 102:9

For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears

Malachi 2:13

And this is another thing you do: You cover the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and groaning, because He no longer regards your offerings or receives them gladly from your hands.

James 5:4

Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

Job 16:4

I could also speak like you if you were in my place; I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.

Job 19:21

Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

Job 19:22

Why do you persecute me as God does? Will you never get enough of my flesh?

Psalms 69:20

Insults have broken my heart, and I am in despair. I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found no one.

Psalms 142:4

Look to my right and see; no one attends to me. There is no refuge for me; no one cares for my soul.

Proverbs 19:7

All the brothers of a poor man hate him— how much more do his friends avoid him! He may pursue them with pleading, but they are nowhere to be found.

Lamentations 1:2

She weeps aloud in the night, with tears upon her cheeks. Among all her lovers there is no one to comfort her. All her friends have betrayed her; they have become her enemies.

Lamentations 1:9

Her uncleanness stains her skirts; she did not consider her end. Her downfall was astounding; there was no one to comfort her. Look, O LORD, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed!

Matthew 26:56

But this has all happened so that the writings of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and fled.

2 Timothy 4:16

At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.

2 Timothy 4:17

But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.