Ecclesiastes 4:2

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Ecclesiastes 4:1–4 · 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.

4 I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

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.

Ecclesiastes 2:17

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Ecclesiastes 9:4

There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.

Ecclesiastes 9:5

For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.

Ecclesiastes 9:6

Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun.

Job 3:17

There the wicked cease from raging, and there the weary find rest.

Job 3:18

The captives enjoy their ease; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

Job 3:19

Both small and great are there, and the slave is freed from his master.

Job 3:20

Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

Job 3:21

who long for death that does not come, and search for it like hidden treasure,