Ecclesiastes 4 commentary

ECCLESIASTES 4 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Oppression, Toil, Friendlessness
1
Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking
place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed-
and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors-
and they have no comforter.
BAR ES, “So I returned, and considered - Rather, And I returned and saw. He turns to
look upon other phenomena, and to test his previous conclusion by them.
Oppressed - See the introduction to Ecclesiastes.
CLARKE, “Considered all the oppressions - ‫עשקים‬ ashukim signifies any kind of injury
which a man can receive in his person, his property, or his good fame.
On the side of their oppressors there was power - And, therefore, neither protection
nor comfort for the oppressed.
GILL, “So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the
sun,.... The wise man, according to Aben Ezra, returned from the thought, which he had
expressed in the latter part of the preceding chapter, that it was good for a man to rejoice in his
works, and called it in; since he could not rejoice, when he considered the oppression and
violence that were in the world; but it does not appear that he did call it in, for he afterwards
repeats it: or rather he returns to his former subject, the abuse of power and authority,
mentioned Ecc_3:16; and from whence he had digressed a little by the above observation; and
takes a review of all kinds of oppressions which are done, and of all sorts of "oppressed" (x)
ones, as some render it, which become so, under the sun; subjects by their prince; the stranger,
widow, and fatherless, by unjust judges; the poor by the rich; servants and labourers by their
masters; and the like. Moreover, he saw by the Holy Ghost, as Jarchi paraphrases it, all
oppressions by a spirit of prophecy; he foresaw all the oppressions that would be done under the
sun; as all the injuries done to the people of Israel in their several captivities; so to the church of

Christ in Gospel times; all the persecutions of Rome Pagan, and also of Rome Papal; all that has
or will be done by antichrist, the man of the earth, who before long will oppress no more,
Psa_10:18; the Targum restrains these oppressions to those which are done to the righteous in
this world: and it is well observed by the wise man, that they are such as are under the sun, for
there are none above it, nor any beyond the grave, Job_3:17;
and behold the tears of such as were oppressed; which their eyes poured out, and which
ran down their cheeks, and were all they could do, having no power to help themselves: it is in
the singular number, "and behold the tear" (y); as if it was one continued stream of tears, which,
like a torrent, flowed from them; or as if they had so exhausted the source of nature by weeping,
that the fountain of tears was dried up, and scarce another could drop; or it was as much as
could be, that another should drop from them: and this the wise man could not well behold,
without weeping himself; it being the property of a good man to weep with them that weep,
especially with good men oppressed;
and they had no comforter; to speak a comfortable word to them; not so much as to do that
which would be some alleviation of their sorrow, much less to help them, no human comforter;
and this is a very deplorable condition, Lam_1:2; indeed, when this is the case, good men under
their oppressions have a divine Comforter; God comforts them under all their tribulations; one
of the names of the Messiah is "the Consolation of Israel", Luk_2:25; and the Spirit of God is
"another Comforter", Joh_14:16; and such are well off, when all other comforters are miserable
ones, or other men have none;
and on the side of their oppressors there was power; to crush them and keep them
under, or to hinder others from helping or comforting them: or there was no "power to deliver
them out of the hand of their oppressors" (z); so some render and supply the words; with which
sense agrees the Targum,
"and there is none to redeem them out of the hand of their oppressors, by strength of hand and
by power.''
It may be rendered, "out of the hand of their oppressors comes power", or violence; such as the
oppressed are not able to withstand; so the Arabic version;
but they had no comforter: which is repeated, not so much for confirmation, as to excite
attention and pity, and to express the affliction of the oppressed, and the cruelty of others; and
this following on the other clause, leads to observe, that the power of the oppressor is what
hinders and deters others from comforting. Jarchi interprets this whole verse of the damned in
hell, punished for their evil works, weeping for their souls oppressed by the destroying angels;
and so, he says, it is, explained in an ancient book of theirs, called Siphri.
HE RY, “Solomon had a large soul (1Ki_4:29) and it appeared by this, among
other things, that he had a very tender concern for the miserable part of mankind
and took cognizance of the afflictions of the afflicted. He had taken the oppressors
to task (Ecc_3:16, Ecc_3:17) and put them in mind of the judgment to come, to be a
curb to their insolence; now here he observes the oppressed. This he did, no doubt,
as a prince, to do them justice and avenge them of their adversaries, for he both
feared God and regarded men; but here he does it as a preacher, and shows,
I. The troubles of their condition (Ecc_4:1); 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 treacherous guardians, and, worst of all, subjects oppressed
by arbitrary princes and unjust judges. Such oppressions are done under the sun; above the sun
righteousness reigns for ever. Wise men will consider these oppressions, and contrive to do
something for the relief of those that are oppressed. Blessed is he that considers the poor. 2. To
see how those that were wronged laid to heart the wrongs that were done them. He beheld the
tears of such as were oppressed, and perhaps could not forbear weeping with them. The world
is a place of weepers; look which way we will, we have a melancholy scene presented to us, the
tears of those that are oppressed with one trouble or other. They find it is to no purpose to
complain, and therefore mourn in secret (as Job, Job_16:20; Job_30:28); but Blessed are those
that mourn. 3. To see how unable they were to help themselves: On the side of their oppressors
there was power, when they had done wrong, to stand to it and make good what they had done,
so that the poor were borne down with a strong hand and had no way to obtain redress. It is sad
to see power misplaced, and that which was given men to enable them to do good perverted to
support them in doing wrong. 4. To see how they and their calamities were slighted by all about
them. They wept and needed comfort, but there was none to do that friendly office: They had no
comforter; their oppressors were powerful and threatening, and therefore they had no
comforter; those that should have comforted them durst not, for fear of displeasing the
oppressors and being made their companions for offering to be their comforters. It is sad to see
so little humanity among men.
JAMISO , “returned — namely, to the thought set forth (Ecc_3:16; Job_35:9).
power — Maurer, not so well, “violence.”
no comforter — twice said to express continued suffering without any to give comfort
(Isa_53:7).
KRETZMAN, “1. So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun, turning his
reflections from the vanity of human life to the violence practiced by many men; and behold the tears of
such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter, no one to dry their tears by healing their
injuries; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, that being the way of tyrants
everywhere, but they had no comforter, the repetition of this phrase emphasizing the desperate and
hopeless condition of the poor and downtrodden.
PULPIT, “So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun. This is equivalent
to, "again I saw," as Ecc_4:7, with a reference to the wickedness in the place of judgment which he had
noticed in Ecc_3:16. Ashukim, "oppressions," is found in Job_35:9 and Amo_3:9, and, being properly a
participle passive, denotes oppressed persons or things, and so abstractedly
"oppressions." Τὰς συκοφαντίας ; calumnias (Vulgate). The verb is used of high-handed injustice, of
offensive selfishness, of the hindrances to his neighbor's well-being caused by a man's careless disregard of
aught but his own interests. Beheld the tears of such as were oppressed; τῶν
συκοφαντουµένων ; innocentium (Vulgate). He notes now not merely the fact of wrong being done, but its
effect on the victim, and intimates his own pity for the sorrow. And they had no comforter. A sad refrain,
echoed again at the end of the verse with touching pathos.Οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῖς παρακαλῶν ; they had no
earthly friends to visit them in their affliction, and they as yet knew not the soothing of the Holy Ghost, the
Comforter ( Παράκλητος ). There was no one to wipe away their tears (Isa_25:8) or to redress their wrongs.
The point is the powerlessness of man in the face of these disorders, his inability to right himself, the
incompetence of others to aid him. On the side of their oppressors there was power (koach), in a bad
sense, like the Greek βία equivalent to "violence." Thus the ungodly say, in the Book of Wisdom Amo_2:11,
"Let our strength be the law of justice." Vulgate, Nec posse resistere eorun violentiae, cunctorum auxilio

destitutes. It is difficult to suppose that the state of things revealed by this verse existed in the days of King
Solomon, or that so powerful a monarch, and one admired for "judgment and justice" (1Ki_10:9), would be
content with complaining of such disorders instead of checking them. There is no token of remorse for past
unprofitableness or anguish of heart at the thought of failure in duty. If we take the words as the utterance of
the real Solomon, we do violence to history, and must correct the existing chronicles of his reign. The picture
here presented is one of later times, and it may be of other countries. Persian rule, or the tyranny of the
Ptolemies, might afford an original from which it might be taken.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that
are done under the sun.
The nature and wickedness of oppression
There is scarce any sin against which more is said in the Word of God, or which is more
reproachful to a man and to a Christian, or more mischievous to society, than oppression. Yet I
fear it is a sin which more persons are guilty of, and more suffer by, than is generally known.
I. Consider what oppression is, and the most striking instances in which men are guilty of it.
1. It is dealing unjustly or unkindly by a person over whose time, goods, trade, or business
the oppressor hath power. It is principally the vice of rich men and superiors, who have
power over their workmen, servants, tenants, and other inferiors. But it is not confined to
them. The poor often meet with very bad, if not the worst, treatment from those who in
station and fortune are very little above them. It is oppression, when men impose what
terms they please upon others in commerce and dealings, without regarding what is just and
right; when they oblige others to sell their goods under their real value, because they are in
necessity; or to give more for a commodity than it is worth, because they cannot do without
it. Selling bad and damaged goods to persons who dare not refuse to take them, and yet must
lose by them, or not sell them again for a reasonable profit, is another instance of this vice. If
a person makes a relation, a neighbour, or dependant, pay dearer for what he buys than his
other customers, because he is under particular obligations to buy of him, he is an oppressor.
Taking exorbitant interest for money lent, or exchange of bills and cash, on account of men’s
necessities, is extortion and oppression. Where a person, or a combination of persons,
engross the whole of any commodity which is to be sold, in order to make an excessive gain
of it, or to injure other tradesmen in the same way of business, this is oppression. Again, to
be rigorous in exacting debts or other rights to the very utmost farthing, where poverty,
sickness, losses, dear seasons, or a large family render men incapable of paying what they
owe; to allow them no time to satisfy their creditors; or to strip them of their all; this is
cruelly oppressive. Obliging persons, over whom men have power, to vote or act against their
consciences; persecuting, reviling, or even bantering, men for their religious sentiments and
worship, is dreadful oppression. In the black list of oppressors must likewise be ranged
parents, masters and mistresses of families and schools, who behave cruelly and severely to
their children, servants, and scholars. There is likewise great oppression in a haughty,
insolent, overbearing way of speaking to inferiors, which is very grating and hurtful to any
sensible mind.
II. The great evil and wickedness of it.
1. It proceeds from a very bad disposition of mind. The principal source of it is covetousness;
an inordinate love of the world (Jer_22:17). In some persons the practice of this sin proceeds
from pride; to show their authority over others, and to keep them in awe. Hence they treat
their inferiors as if they were of a lower species, and not worthy of common justice. This
chows a base, ignoble mind (Psa_63:6-8). In some, it is owing to luxury and extravagance.
They are dressed with the spoils of the poor; and their fine houses, equipages, and

entertainments are supported by the properties and comforts of others. It is sometimes
owing to sloth; because, like drones in the hive, they will not work, they prey upon the
labours of the industrious. It is very often owing to resentment, malice, and ill-nature.
2. Oppression is a high ingratitude and affront to the righteous God. It is ingratitude to Him,
because He giveth men all their wealth and power over others, and He doth this, not that
they may oppress, but protect, relieve, and serve others, and be a blessing to them. It must,
therefore, be horrid ingratitude to abuse and pervert these favours to their injury. But what
renders it worse is, that He hath bestowed upon men spiritual blessings and Christian
privileges, and, therefore, to oppress and injure them must be proportionably wicked.
Further, He hath placed men in different circumstances in life; “made both the rich and the
poor.” He hath allotted to men such conditions here that they need one another’s assistance.
The rich want the labour of the poor, as the poor want the money of the rich; and God
expects that they should help one another, and so contribute to the general happiness. To
oppress the poor, then, is defeating the wise and kind design of God’s providence.
3. It is detestable inhumanity and cruelty to the oppressed. “A righteous man regardeth the
life of his beast.” What then must we think of those who are oppressive and cruel to their
fellow-men, but that they are utterly void of justice, goodness, and humanity, that they are
monsters and not men?
4. It is directly contrary to the design of the Gospel; which is to promote righteousness, love,
peace, and happiness upon earth, as well as to secure the eternal salvation of mankind.
5. It will sink men into everlasting ruin. God is a just and righteous Being, and at the
judgment-day “He will render to every one according to his works.” The Lord seeth and
remembereth all the oppression that is done under the sun, and He will at length reckon
with those who have done it.
application.
1. I shall address oppressors; those whose consciences tell them, as in the sight of God, that
they have been guilty of this sin in the instances above mentioned or any other. I exhort you,
sirs, to hearken to the voice of conscience as the voice of God; to submit to its reproofs; and
to be humbled deeply before God for your injustice and cruelty to men.
2. Let me address the oppressed. It may perhaps be the ease of some of you, and I would
endeavour to be your comforter. Acknowledge the justice of the Lord in what you suffer from
the hand of men. Though they are unrighteous, He is righteous, for you have sinned; and He
may choose this method of afflicting you, to lead you to repentance, to exercise your virtues,
and make your hearts better. Let me exhort you to guard against a spirit of malice and
revenge. Remember that their oppressing you will be no excuse for injustice to them. That “it
is no harm to bite the biter” is a very wicked maxim. It is better to suffer many wrongs than
to do one. Yea, it is our duty to render good for evil.
3. I would address those who can appeal to a heart-searching God that they are guiltless of
this sin. I would exhort you to guard against the love of money, which is the chief root of this
evil. To prevent your becoming oppressors, go not to the utmost bounds of things lawful.
Keep on the safe side. Be not only just, but honourable, generous, and charitable, and
“abstain from the very appearance of evil.” Let me exhort you, likewise, to be comforters of
the oppressed. (Job Orton, D. D.)
Woman’s work and overwork

It was considered honourable for women to toil in olden times. Alexander the Great stood in his
palace showing garments made by his own mother. The finest tapestries at Bayeux were made
by the queen of William the Conqueror. Augustus, the Emperor, would not wear any garments
except those that were fashioned by some member of his royal family. So let the toilers
everywhere be respected! The greatest blessing that could have happened to our first parents
was being turned out of Eden after they had done wrong. Ashbel Green, at fourscore years, when
asked why he kept on working, said: “I do so to keep out of mischief.” We see that a man who
has a large amount of money to start with has no chance. Of the thousand prosperous and
honourable men that you know, nine hundred and ninety-nine had to work vigorously at the
beginning. But I am now to tell you that industry is just as important for a woman’s safety and
happiness. The little girls of our families must be started with that idea. The curse of our
American society is that our young women are taught that the first, second, third, fourth, fifth,
sixth, seventh, tenth, fiftieth, thousandth thing in their life is to get somebody to take care of
them. Instead of that, the first lesson should be how under God they may take care of
themselves. Madame do Stael said: “It is not these writings that I am proud of, but the fact that I
have facility in ten occupations, in any one of which I could make a livelihood.” Though you live
in an elegant residence and fare sumptuously every day, let your daughters feel it is a disgrace to
them not to know how to work. I denounce the idea prevalent in society that though our young
women may embroider slippers and crochet and make mats for lamps to stand on without
disgrace, the idea of doing anything for a livelihood is dishonourable. It is a shame for a young
woman belonging to a large family to be inefficient when the father toils his life away for her
support. It is a shame for a daughter to be idle while her mother toils at the wash-tub. No
woman, any more than a man, has a right to occupy a place in this world unless she pays a rent
for it. Society is to be reconstructed on the subject of woman’s toil. A vast majority of those who
would have woman industrious shut her up to a few kinds of work. My judgment in this matter
is that a woman has a right to do anything she can do well. There should be no department of
merchandise, mechanism, art, or science barred against her. If Miss Hosmer has genius for
sculpture, give her a chisel. If Rosa Bonheur has a fondness for delineating animals, let her make
“The Horse Fair.” If Miss Mitchell will study astronomy, let her mount the starry ladder. If Lydia
will be a merchant, let her sell purple. It is said, if woman is given such opportunities she will
occupy places that might be taken by men. I say, if she have more skill and adaptedness for any
position than a man has, let her have ill She has as much right to her bread, to her apparel, and
to her home as men have. But it is said that her nature is so delicate that she is unfitted for
exhausting toil. I ask in the name of all past history what toil on earth is more severe,
exhausting, and tremendous than that toil of the needle to which for ages she has been
subjected? Oh, the meanness, the despicability, of men who begrudge a woman the right of work
anywhere in any honourable calling! I go still further and say that women should have equal
compensation with men. By what principle of justice is it that women in many of our cities get
only two-thirds as much pay as men and in many cases only half? Here is the gigantic injustice—
that for work equally well, if not better, done, women receive far less compensation than men.
Years ago one Sabbath night, in the vestibule of this church, after service, a woman fell in
convulsions. The doctor said she needed medicine not so much as something to eat. As she
began to revive, in her delirium she said, gaspingly: “Eight cents! Eight cents! Eight cents! I wish
I could get it done, I am so tired. I wish I could get some sleep, but I must get it done. Eight
cents! Eight cents! Eight cents!” We found afterwards that she was making garments for eight
cents apiece, and she could make but three of them in a day. Hear it! Three times eight are
twenty-four. Hear it, men and women who have comfortable homes. How are these evils to be
eradicated? Some say: “Give women the ballot.” What effect such ballot might have on other
questions I am not here to discuss; but what would be the effect of female suffrage on women’s
wages? I do not believe that women will ever get justice by woman’s ballot. Indeed, women
oppress women as much as men do. Do not women, as much as men, beat down to the lowest

figure the woman who sews for them? Woman will never get justice done her from woman’s
ballot. Neither will she get it from man’s ballot. How then? God will rise up for her. God has
more resources than we know of. The flaming sword that hung at Eden’s gate when woman was
driven out will cleave with its terrible edge her oppressors. But there is something for women to
do. Let young people prepare to excel in spheres of work, and they will be able after a while to
get larger wages. If it be shown that a woman can, in a store, sell more goods in a year than a
man, she will soon be able not only to ask, but to demand more wages, and to demand them
successfully. Unskilled and incompetent labour must take what is given; skilled and competent
labour will eventually make its own standard. (T. DeWilt Talmage.)
They had no comforter.
No comforter
It is the glory of the Gospel that it is not only a religion of conversion, but a religion of
consolation. It ministers peace, and makes even the human side of life capable of deep and
abiding joy. The promise has been fulfilled, and the soul bears witness that He is true who says,
“I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”
I. The latent pain. This pain does not leap forth at once. It is a kind of hidden fire: a sort of
slumbering force. Students of life should think deeply on this, that pain lies hidden in pleasure.
The strangest fact in life is that the measure of joy is often the measure of sorrow. The height of
gain is the length of the shadow of loss. The keener our affection, the more bitter our anguish
when bereavement comes. The more ardent our pursuit, the more depressing the
disappointment in missing the goal. In Jesus Christ our Lord He has offered us a renewed
nature and a restful heart. He has given us a Saviour and a Comforter. We need no more. If the
latent pain leaps forth, we have an anodyne for sorrow, a perfect absolution for sin, a balm for
broken hearts, a brother born for adversity, and beyond the present the glories of immortal life.
At our peril we put Christ away. Out in the wide fields of human search we come upon no
footprints of another Saviour.
II. The charlatan comforters. Yes! there are comforters. We find that men will put the poppy in
the pillow when there is no peace in the heart. They seek comfort. Sometimes in quiet retreats,
where the scenes of the city life do not haunt them, Nature’s floral groves and woodland
shadows constitute a veil to hide the weird forms of guilt and shame and sorrow to be met with
in crowded centres of life. But past life will there come back to memory, and unforgiven sin will
there send its sharp dagger to the heart. Or it may be that freedom from necessity brings
comfort, and that superfluity has made the old days of care and struggle only a memory! Now at
all events there are no sleepless nights, no battles amid daily anxiety for daily bread, and we sit
under the restful shadow of trees planted long ago! Then, too, much looks like comfort, which
comes from ease of circumstance, when the couch is of down, and no spectre of anxiety crosses
the earthly threshold. But even then there are deep necessities of the soul, if we are dead to
things divine.
III. The fulness of Christ. I do not mean merely Divine perfectness in the quantity of sympathy,
but, if I may say so, in the quality of it. Nothing is more wonderful than the way in which the
weary soul finds sympathy in the Saviour. There is a revelation of grace in Christ which makes
Him the complement of each man’s nature. Sorrows differ; doubts differ; needs differ; tastes
differ; and even the wounds inflicted by bereavement differ. But Christ searches us, and knows
us all. And what sweet response comes from hearts that have trusted in Him, as they unite in
testifying, “His grace is sufficient for us!” How patiently Christians suffer! How trustfully they
rest! How cheerfully they live! How hopefully they die!

IV. The missing good. No comforter! Then who will show us any good? For we cannot unmake
ourselves. There is the connection of comfort with conscience. Divine redemption still, as of old,
is a necessity of the human heart. Then there is the connection of comfort with character. We are
made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We have new motives, new aims, new desires, new
sympathies, new relationship to God. Our life is hid with Christ in God—the blessed God: and
then peace flows like a river through the heart. This is life eternal. Then there is the connection
of comfort with influence. That man has no comforter who realizes that the influence of his life
is an infection of evil, an impulse to the lower life. Even if he possess genius, it may be but an
added force for harm. But the Christian has this comfort, though no minstrel sings the story of
his chivalry, though no sculptured marble tells the tale of his renown—yet he liveth to the Lord,
he dieth to the Lord. The world of holy influence will be the richer for his being! (W. M.
Statham.)
EBC, “Thus, after rising in the first fifteen verses of this Third Chapter, to an
almost Christian height of patience, and resignation, and holy trust in the
providence of God, Coheleth is smitten by the injustice and oppressions of man
into the depths of a pessimistic materialism.
But now a new question arises. The Preacher’s survey of human life has shaken his faith even in
the conclusion which he has announced from the first, viz., that there is nothing better for a man
than a quiet content, a busy cheerfulness, a tranquil enjoyment of the fruit of his toils. This at
least he has supposed to be possible: but is it? All the activities, industries, tranquillities of life
are jeopardised, now by the inflexible ordinances of Heaven, and again by the capricious tyranny
of man. To this tyranny his fellow countrymen are now exposed. They groan under its heaviest
oppressions. As he turns and once more reflects (Ecc_4:1) on their unalleviated and unfriended
misery, he doubts whether content, or even resignation, can be expected of them. With a tender
sympathy that lingers on the details of their unhappy lot, and deepens into a passionate and
despairing melancholy, he witnesses their sufferings and "counts the tears" of the oppressed.
With the emphasis of a Hebrew and an Oriental, he marks and emphasises the fact that "they
had no comforter," that though "their oppressors were violent, yet they had no comforter." For
throughout the East, and among the Jews to this day, the manifestation of sympathy with those
who suffer is far more common and ceremonious than it is with us. Neighbours and
acquaintances are expected to pay long visits of condolence; friends and kinsfolk will travel long
distances to pay them. Their respective places and duties in the house of mourning, their dress,
words, bearing, precedence, are regulated by an ancient and elaborate etiquette. And, strange as
it may seem to us, these visits are regarded not only as gratifying tokens of respect to the dead,
but as a singular relief and comfort to the living. To the Preacher and his fellow captives,
therefore, it would be a bitter aggravation of their grief that, while suffering under the most cruel
oppressions of misfortune, they were compelled to forego the solace of these customary tokens
of respect and sympathy. As be pondered their sad and unfriended condition, Coheleth-like Job,
when his comforters failed him-is moved to curse his day. The dead, he affirms, are happier than
the living, -even the dead who died so long ago that the fate most dreaded in the East had
befallen them, and the very memory of them had perished from the earth: while happier than
either the dead, who have had to suffer in their time, or than the living, whose doom had still to
be borne, were those who had never seen the light, never been born into a world all disordered
and out of course (Ecc_4:2-3).
COFFMAN, “OPPRESSION AND THE OPPRESSED
Ecclesiastes 4:1-3
"Then I returned and saw 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. Wherefore I praised the dead that have been long dead more than
the living who are yet alive; yea, better than them both did I esteem him that hath not yet been, who
hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun."
"On the side of the oppressors there was power" (Ecclesiastes 4:1). "The point here is not merely that
there is power, but that power corrupts."[1]On the basis of what is said here, we may conclude that there
was at least someDEGREE of sympathy on Solomon's part for the oppressed; yet he himself had
oppressed hundreds of thousands of the residual Canaanites, making slaves of them. Here he views all the
suffering; and, "Although he might have had some feeling for them, he did not move a muscle to change
their lot."[2] He just stood by, a picture of indifference and unconcern. How different is this attitude from that
of the great prophets who so vigorously and effectively shouted the anathemas of God against the
oppressors; and indeed what a contrast there is here with the Christ who had compassion on the
multitudes, fed them when they were hungry, healed all their diseases and thundered the message,
"Blessed are ye poor, forYOURS is the kingdom of heaven" (Luke 6:20). "Behold a Greater than
Solomon"! (Matthew 12:42); and incredibly pathetic is the blind folly of Israel who rejected Christ because
he was not another Solomon!
HAWKER, “The Preacher is still prosecuting the same subject, of the insufficiency
of all things here below to give comfort. And the whole chapter is but one and the
same train of reasoning on this important point.
Ecc_4:1
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.
It is impossible not to be struck with the strength of argument which the Preacher makes use of,
in order to enforce the doctrine of human vanity. In whatever way he directs his attention, and
whatever object meets his eye, he seems to raise sermons from everything to lead to the same
conclusion. And it is yet more remarkable, that what Solomon saw and observed in his day,
every reflecting mind may equally behold, and draw the same conclusions now in our day:
human life is not changed, but vanity is still marked upon all. Oh! how blessed it is, in
confirmation of the vast and infinite importance of the gospel of Christ! Where shall we look for
happiness, but to Jesus? We may well say, as the Apostle did, Lord, to whom shall we go, thou
hast the words of eternal life. Joh_6:68.
SBC, “It is a great principle, and not to be lost sight of, the weakness of oppression,
the terrible strength of the oppressed. And though Solomon felt so perturbed by
the prosperous cruelty he witnessed, had he bent his eye a little longer in the
direction where it eventually rested, he would have found a Comforter for the
oppressed, and would have seen the impotence of the oppressor. On the side of the
oppressed is Omnipotence, and the most deathless of foes is a victim. Still liberty,
or exemption from man’s oppression, is a priceless blessing; and it may be worth
while to ask, What can Christians do for its culture and diffusion?
I. Yourselves be free. Seek freedom from fierce passions and dark prejudices. If you are led
captive by the devil at his will, you are sure to become an oppressor.
II. Beware of confounding liberty with licence. One of the greatest blessings in a State or in a
Christian Church is good government; but, from mistaken notions of independence, it is the
delight of some to "speak evil of dignities." The man who is magnanimous in obeying is likely to
be mighty in command.

III. Cultivate a humane and gentle spirit. Here it is that the mollifying religion of Jesus comes in
as the great promoter of freedom and the great opponent of oppression. By infusing a
benevolent spirit into the bosom of the Christian, it makes him the natural guardian of weakness
and the natural friend of innocence.
J. Hamilton, The Royal Preacher, Lecture IX.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-5:7
I. In the fourth chapter Koheleth comes to the conclusion that life is essentially and irretrievably
wretched—wretched not because (as he had formerly thought) it would so soon be over, but
wretched because it lasted too long. All that pleasure did for him was thus to increase his gloom.
There was one thing he had forgotten in making out his programme: he had forgotten the
miseries of other people. The prosperity he secured for himself did not remove their adversity,
but only brought it out into more startling relief. He was infected by their wretchedness, for in
the midst of all his dissipation he had preserved a kindly heart. "I considered," he says, "the
tears of those who are oppressed, and who have no comforter." The oppression of the poor by
the rich was one of the most characteristic phases of Oriental society. To be poor was to be weak,
and to be weak was to be reduced more or less into the condition of a slave.
II. In Ecc_5:4 Koheleth makes a new departure. He remarks that greed is at the bottom of a
good deal of human misery. All work, he says, and all dexterity in work, is due to envy, to a
jealous determination to outstrip our neighbours, to what Mallock calls the "desire for
inequality." In contrast to the career of selfish isolation, Koheleth describes the advantages of
sympathetic co-operation with one’s fellow-men. We should not, he says, strive against one
another, each for his own good; we should strive with one another, each for the good of the
whole. Co-operation is preferable to competition.
III. It now occurs to Koheleth that we may perhaps find some help in religious observances. He
has already pointed out to us how we are hemmed in on all sides by limitations and restrictions.
It must evidently be important what attitude we assume towards the Power which thus checks
and thwarts us. Take care, he says, how you go into the house of God, how you perform your
sacrifices, and prayers, and vows. He teaches us, as wise men have always taught, that obedience
is better than sacrifice. Again, the value of prayer depends not on its length, but on its sincerity.
Speak only out of the fulness of your heart. God is not to be trifled with. He cannot be deluded
into mistaking for worship what is mere idle talk.
A. W. Momerie, Agnosticism, p. 204.
PULPIT 1-3, “Two pessimistic fallacies; or, the glory of being born.
I. THE FIRST FALLACY. That the dead are happier than the living.
1. Even on the assumption of no hereafter, this is not evident. The already dead are not praised because
they enjoyed better times on earth than the now living have. But
(1) if they had better times when living, they have these no more, having ceased to be; while

(2) if their times on earth were not superior to those of their successors, they have still only escaped these
by subsiding into cold annihilation, and it has yet to be proved that "a living dog" is not "better than a dead
lion" (Ecc_9:4). Besides,
(3) it is not certain there is no hereafter, which makes them pause and hesitate to jump the life to come.
When they discuss with themselves the question—
"Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them?"
they generally come to Hamlet's conclusion, that it is better to
"Bear the ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of."
2. On the assumption that there is a hereafter, it is less certain that the dead are more to be praised than the
living. It depends on who the dead are, and what the kind of existence is into which they have departed.
(1) If they have lived unrighteously on earth, it will not be safe, even on grounds of natural reason, to
conclude that their condition in the unseen land into which they have vanished is better than that of the living
who are yet alive, even should these also be wicked; since for these there are still time and place for
repentance, which cannot be affirmed of the ungodly dead.
(2) If their lives on earth have been pious—e.g; if as Christians they have fallen asleep in Jesus—it need
hardly be doubted that their condition is better even than that of the godly living, who are still dwellers in this
vale of tears, subject to imperfections, exposed to temptations, and liable to sin.
II. THE SECOND FALLACY. That better than both the living and the dead are the not yet born.
1. On the assumption that this life is all, it is notUNIVERSALLY true that not to have been
born would have been a preferable lot to having been born and being dead. No doubt it is sad that one born
into this world is sure, while on his pilgrimage to the tomb, to witness spectacles of oppression such as the
Preacher describes; and sadder that many before they die will be the victims of such oppressions; while of

all things, perhaps the saddest is that a man may even live to become the perpetrator of such cruelties; yet
no one can truly affirm that human life generally contains nothing but oppression on the one side and tears
upon the other, or that in any individual's life naught exists but wretchedness and woe, or that in
the experiences of most the joys do not nearly counterbalance, if not actually outweigh, the griefs, while in
that of not a few the pleasures far exceed the pains.
2. On the assumption of a hereafter, only one case or class of cases can be pointed to in which it would
have been decidedly better not to have been born, viz. that in which one who has been born, on departing
from this world, passes into an undone eternity. Christ instanced one such case (Mat_26:24); and if there be
truth in the representations given by Christ and his apostles of the ultimate doom of those who die in
unbelief and sin (Mat_11:22; Mat_13:41, Mat_13:42; Mat_22:13; Mat_24:51; Joh_5:29; 2Th_1:9; Rev_21:8),
it will not be difficult to see that in their case also the words of the Preacher will be true.
3. In every other instance, but chiefly in that of the good, who does not see how immeasurably more
blessed it is to have been born? For consider what this means. It means to have been made in the Divine
image, endowed with an intellect and a heart capable of holding fellowship with and serving God. And if it
also signifies to have been born into a state of sin and misery in consequence of our first parents' fall, it
should not be forgotten that it signifies, in addition, to have been born into a sphere and condition of
existence in which God's grace has been before one, and is waiting to lift one up, completely and for ever,
out of that sin and misery if one will. No one accepting that grace will ever afterwards deem it a misfortune
that he was born. Thomas Halyburton, the Scottish theologian, did not so regard his introduction to this
lower world, with all its vicissitudes and woes. "Oh, blessed be God that I was born!" were his dying words. "I
have a father and a mother, and ten brothers and sisters, in heaven, and I shall be the eleventh. Oh, blessed
be the day that ever I was born!"
Learn:
1. The existence of sin and suffering no proof that life is an evil thing.
2. The wickedness of undervaluing existence under the sun.
3. The folly of over-praising the dead and underrating the living.
4. A worse thing than seeing "evil work" beneath the sun is doing it.
PULPIT, “The oppressed and the oppressor.
Liberty has ever been the object of human desire and aspiration. Yet how seldom and how partially has this
boon been secured during the long period of human history! Especially in the East freedom has been but
little known. Despotism has been and is very general, and there have seldom been states of society in which

there has been no room for reflections such as those recorded in this verse.
I. THE TYRANNY OF THE OPPRESSOR.
1. This implies power, which may arise from physical strength, from hereditary authority, from rank and
wealth, or from civil and political position and dignity. Power will always exist in human society; drive it out at
one door, and it will re-enter by another. It may be checked and restrained; but it is inseparable from our
nature and state.
2. It implies the misuse of power. It may be good to have a giant's strength, but "tyrannous to use it like a
giant." The great and powerful use their strength and influence aright when they protect and care for those
who are beneath them. But our experience of human nature leads us to believe that where there is power
there is likely to be abuse. Delight in the exercise of power is too generally found to lead to the contempt of
the rights of others; hence the prevalence of oppression.
II. THE SORROWFUL LOT OF THE OPPRESSED.
1. The sense of oppression creates grief and distress, depicted in the tears of those suffering from wrong.
Pain is one thing; wrong is another and a bitterer thing. A man will endure patiently the ills which nature or
his own conduct brings upon him, whilst he frets or even rages under the evil wrought by his neighbor's
injustice.
2. The absence of consolation adds to the trouble. Twice it is said of the oppressed, "They had no
comforter." The oppressors are indisposed, and fellow-sufferers are unable, to succor and relieve them.
3. The consequence is the slow formation of the habit of dejection, which may deepen into despondency.
III. THE REFLECTIONS SUGGESTED BY SUCH SPECTACLES.
1. No right-minded person can look upon instances of oppression without discerning the prevalence and
lamenting the pernicious effects of sin. 'To oppress a fellow-man is to do despite to the image of God
himself.
2. The mind is often perplexed when it looks, and looks in vain, for the interposition of the just Governor of
all, who defers to intervene for the rectification of human wrongs. "How long, O Lord!" is the exclamation of
many a pious believer in Divine providence, who looks upon the injustice of the haughty and contemptuous,
and upon the woes of the helpless who are smitten and afflicted.
3. Yet there is reason patiently to wait for the great deliverance. He who has effected a glorious salvation on

man's behalf, who has "visited and redeemed his people," will in due time humble the selfish tyrant, break
the bonds of the captive, and let the oppressed go free.—T.
COPELA D Chapter Four OBJECTIVES I STUDYI G THIS CHAPTER 1) To reflect
upon the Preacher's observations gleaned from his search for the purpose of life under the sun 2)
To consider the vanity of skillful work, isolation, and popularity 3) To appreciate the value of
friendship and working together SUMMARY The Preacher continues to share his observations
gleaned during the course of his search for the purpose of life under the sun. Earlier he related
the injustice he saw (cf. 3:16). Now we are told how he considered those who were oppressed
with no comforter. In such a state, he concluded the dead were better than the living, and better
than both was to never be born (1-4). The Preacher then describes what he saw as the vanity of
toil and skillful work, especially when one is alone. While one who does nothing is a fool and
consumes his own flesh, it is better to have a little with quietness than a lot with much toil. A
grave misfortune is the person with no companion, son, nor brother, who labors endlessly for
riches that do not satisfy and does not consider who will receive that for which he deprives
himself of much good in life. On the other hand, the Preacher saw great value in friendship. He
illustrates the principle of synergy in their work and how they can help one another in times of
need (5-12). The chapter closes with an illustration of the vanity of popularity. While a young
and wise man who becomes king may be popular at first, with the passing of time he is not
appreciated by those who come along later (13-16). OUTLI E I. THE OPPRESSIO OF
ME (4:1-3) A. WHAT THE PREACHER REVIEWED (1) 1. He considered the oppression
done under the sun 2. He saw the tears of the oppressed, who had no comforter 3. He observed
power on the side of the oppressors B. WHAT THE PREACHER REASO ED (2-3) 1. He
praised the dead more than the living 2. Better than both is the person who: a. Has never existed
b. Has not seen the evil work done under the sun II. THE VA ITY OF TOILA D SKILLFUL
WORK (4:4-6) A. IT BREEDS E VY I OTHERS (4) 1. He saw that toil and skillful labor is
envied by others 2. This too is vanity and grasping for wind B. TWO WAYS TO REACT TO
THIS VA ITY (5-6) 1. The fool does nothing, and consumes his own flesh 2. It is better to have
a little with quietness III. THE VA ITY OF ISOLATIO (4:7-12) A. THE VA ITY OF
BEI G ALO E (7-8) 1. He saw more vanity under the sun 2. A person who was alone, without
companion, son, or brother a. With no end to his labors, with no satisfaction with his riches b.
Who does not consider for whom he labors and deprives himself of good 3. This was vanity and
a grave misfortune B. THE VALUE OF FRIE DS (9-12) 1. Two are better than one, for they
have good reward for their labor 2. If one falls, the other can lift him up 3. Their combined body
heat can keep them warm 4. They can withstand one who would seek to overpower them 5. A
threefold cord is not quickly broken IV. THE VA ITY OF POPULARITY (4:13-16) A. A
TALE OF TWO ME (13-15) 1. It is better to be a poor and wise youth, than an old and
foolish king who will not accept criticism 2. For the young man, though born poor, comes out of
prison to become king and the living were with him B. YET POPULARITY IS SHORT-
LIVED (16) 1. The young king might rule over a populous nation 2. But another generation will
arise that will not rejoice in him REVIEW QUESTIO S FOR THE CHAPTER 1) What are
the main points of this chapter? - The oppression of men (1-3) - The vanity of toil and skillful
work (4-6) - The vanity of isolation (7-12) - The vanity of popularity (13-16) 2) What did the
Preacher observe regarding oppression? (1) - Power was on the side of the oppressor, the

oppressed had no comforter 3) What did this observation prompt the Preacher to do? (2-3) -
Praise the dead more than the living - Reason that better than both was never to be born 4) What
did he observe about toil and skillful work? (4) - It prompted envy from one's neighbor - It too
was vanity and grasping for the wind 5) How does he describe the fool who doesn't work? (5)
- As one who folds his hands and consumes his own flesh 6) What is better than both hands
full, but with toil and grasping for the wind? (6) - A handful with quietness 7) What is
described as vanity and a grave misfortune? (7-8) - One who is alone, who labors endlessly
for riches that do not satisfy - Who never considers for whom he is toiling and depriving himself
of much good 8) How does the Preacher illustrate the value of friendship? (9-12) - Two
working together accomplish more (the principle of synergy) - Having someone to help you if
you fall - Surviving a cold night by sharing body heat - Two can withstand one - A threefold cord
is not easily broken 9) How does the Preacher illustrate the vanity of popularity? (13-16) -
With the example of a youth who becomes king, but as he gets older he is not appreciated by the
people who come afterward
TRAPP, “Ecclesiastes 4:1 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.
Ver. 1. So I returned, and considered.] Here is a second instance of corruption in civil state, added to that
of Ecclesiastes 3:16, to fill up the nest of vanities.
And behold the tears of such, &c.] Heb., Tear; as if they had wept their utmost, et vix unicam lachrymulam
extorquere possent, and could hardly squeeze out one poor tear more for their own ease. For as "hinds by
calving," so men by weeping "cast out their sorrows." [Job 39:3] (a) Now tears are of many sorts: Lachrymas
angustiae exprimit crux; lachrymas poenitentiae, peccatum; lachrymas sympathiae, affectus; lachrymas
letitiae, excellentia gaudii; denique lachrymas nequitiae, vel hypocrisis, vel vindictae,
cupiditas. (b) Oppression draws tears of grief; sin, tears of repentance; affection, tears of compassion; good
success, tears of joy; hypocrisy or spite, tears of wickedness.
And they had no comforter.] This was Job’s doleful case, and David’s, [Psalms 69:21] and the Church’s in
the Lamentations. [Lamentations 1:2]Affert solarium lugentibus suspiriorum societas, saith Basil Pity allays
misery; but incompassionateness of others increaseth it. This was one of Sodom’s sins, [Ezekiel 16:49] and
of those epicures in Amos. [Amos 6:6] The king and Haman sat drinking in the gate; but the whole city of
Shushan was in heaviness. [Esther 3:15]
And on the side of their oppressors, &c.] The oppressed Romans sighed out to Pompey, Nostra miseria
tu es magnus. You, our misery, is great. The world hath almost as many wild beasts and monsters as it hath
landlords in various places. It is a woeful thing, surely, to see how great ones quaff the tears of the
oppressed, and to hear them make music of shrieks.
LANGE, “Among the examples in proof of the imperfection and inconstancy of earthly happiness, which
the Preacher communicates in the above section from the rich treasures of his own experience, we find the
relation of an ascending grade from lower to higher and more brilliant conditions of happiness. From the sad
lot of victims innocently suffering from tyrannical persecution and oppression (1–3), the description proceeds
directly to the more lucky but not more innocent condition of persons consumed with envy, dissatisfaction
and jealousy, and who with toilsome efforts chase after the treasures of this earth, looking with jealous envy
on the successful rivals of their struggles, and with scorn on those less fortunate, who are contented with a
more modest lot (4–6). Then follow reflections regarding the happiness of such persons as have risen
through the abundance of their goods to a distinguished and influential position in human society, but who, in
consequence of this very wealth, run the risk of falling into a helpless, joyless, and isolated condition,
destitute of friends and adherents (Ecc_7:12). The illustration hereby induced of the value of closer social
connection of men, and harmonious co-operation of their powers to one end (9–12) leads to the closing
reflection; this is devoted to the distress and disaster of the highest circles of human society, acknowledging

the fate even of the most favored pets of fortune, such as the occupants of princely or kingly thrones, to be
uncertain and liable to a reverse, and thus showing that the sentence against the vanity of all earthly things
necessarily extends even to the greatest and most powerful of earth (13–16).
“There is no complete and lasting happiness here below, neither among the lofty nor the lowly,” or: “Every
thing is vanity on earth, the life of the poor as of the rich, of the slave as of the lord, of the subject as of the
king;”—this would be about the formula of a theme for a comprehensive consideration of this section. The
effort of Hengstenberg to restrict the historical references of this section to the sufferings of the children of
Israel mourning under the yoke of Persian dominion, is quite as unnecessary as the corresponding position
in the preceding chapter; yet still the most of the concrete examples for the truth of the descriptions given,
may be drawn from the history of post-exile Israel, which are therefore thus to be chosen and arranged in
the homiletical treatment.
SERMON BIBLE, “It is a great principle, and not to be lost sight of, the weakness of oppression,
the terrible strength of the oppressed. And though Solomon felt so perturbed by the prosperous
cruelty he witnessed, had he bent his eye a little longer in the direction where it eventually
rested, he would have found a Comforter for the oppressed, and would have seen the impotence
of the oppressor. On the side of the oppressed is Omnipotence, and the most deathless of foes is a
victim. Still liberty, or exemption from man's oppression, is a priceless blessing; and it may be
worth while to ask, What can Christians do for its culture and diffusion?
I. Yourselves beFREE . Seek freedom from fierce passions and dark prejudices. If you are led captive by
the devil at his will, you are sure to become an oppressor.
II. Beware of confounding liberty with licence. One of the greatest blessings in a State or in a Christian
Church is good government; but, from mistaken notions of independence, it is the delight of some to "speak
evil of dignities." The man who is magnanimous in obeying is likely to be mighty in command.
III. Cultivate a humane and gentle spirit. Here it is that the mollifying religion of Jesus comes in as the
greatPROMOTER of freedom and the great opponent of oppression. By infusing a benevolent spirit into
the bosom of the Christian, it makes him the natural guardian of weakness and the natural friend of
innocence.
J. Hamilton, The Royal Preacher, Lecture IX.
Ecclesiastes 4:1-5:7
I. In the fourth chapter Koheleth comes to the conclusion that life is essentially and irretrievably wretched—
wretched not because (as he had formerly thought) it would so soon be over, but wretched because it lasted
too long. All that pleasure did for him was thus to increase his gloom. There was one thing he had forgotten
in making out his programme: he had forgotten the miseries of other people. The prosperity heSECURED
for himself did not remove their adversity, but only brought it out into more startling relief. He was
infected by their wretchedness, for in the midst of all his dissipation he had preserved a kindly heart. "I
considered," he says, "the tears of those who are oppressed, and who have no comforter." The oppression
of the poor by the rich was one of the most characteristic phases of Oriental society. To be poor was to be
weak, and to be weak was to be reduced more or less into the condition of a slave.
II. In Ecclesiastes 5:4 Koheleth makes a new departure. He remarks that greed is at the bottom of a good
deal of human misery. All work, he says, and all dexterity in work, is due to envy, to a jealous determination
to outstrip our neighbours, to what Mallock calls the "desire for inequality." In contrast to theCAREER of
selfish isolation, Koheleth describes the advantages of sympathetic co-operation with one's fellow-men. We
should not, he says, strive against one another, each for his own good; we should strivewith one another,
each for the good of the whole. Co-operation is preferable to competition.
III. It now occurs to Koheleth that we may perhaps find some help in religious observances. He has already
pointed out to us how we are hemmed in on all sides by limitations and restrictions. It must evidently be
important what attitude we assume towards the Power which thusCHECKS and thwarts us. Take care, he
says, how you go into the house of God, how you perform your sacrifices, and prayers, and vows. He
teaches us, as wise men have always taught, that obedience is better than sacrifice. Again, the value of
prayer depends not on its length, but on its sincerity. Speak only out of the fulness of your heart. God is not
to be trifled with. He cannot be deluded into mistaking for worship what is mere idle talk.

A. W. Momerie, Agnosticism, p. 204.
2
And I declared that the dead,
who had already died,
are happier than the living,
who are still alive.
CLARKE, “Wherefore I praised the dead - I considered those happy who had escaped
from the pilgrimage of life to the place where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the
weary are at rest.
GILL, “Wherefore I praised the dead, which are already dead,.... Truly and properly
so; not in a figurative sense, as dead sinners, men dead in trespasses and sins; nor carnal
professors, that have a name to live, and are dead; nor in a civil sense, such as are in calamity
and distress, as the Jews in captivity, or in any affliction, which is sometimes called death: but
such who are dead in a literal and natural sense, really and thoroughly dead; not who may and
will certainly die, but who are dead already and in their graves, and not all these; not the wicked
dead, who are in hell, in everlasting torments; but the righteous dead, who are taken away from
the evil to come, and are free from all the oppressions of their enemies, sin, Satan, and the
world. The Targum is,
"I praised those that lie down or are asleep, who, behold, are now dead;''
a figure by which death is often expressed, both in the Old and New Testament; sleep being, as
the poet (a) says, the image of death; and a great likeness there is between them; Homer (b) calls
sleep and death twins. The same paraphrase adds,
"and see not the vengeance which comes upon the world after their death;''
see Isa_57:1. The wise man did not make panegyrics or encomiums on those persons, but he
pronounced them happy; he judged them in his own mind to be so; and to be much
more happy
than the living which are yet alive: that live under the oppression of others; that live in this
world in trouble until now, as the Targum; of whom it is as much as it can be said that they are
alive; they are just alive, and that is all; they are as it were between life and death. This is
generally understood as spoken according to human sense, and the judgment of the flesh,

without any regard to the glory and happiness of the future state; that the dead must be
preferred to the living, when the quiet of the one, and the misery of the other, are observed; and
which sense receives confirmation from Ecc_4:3, otherwise it is a great truth, that the righteous
dead, who die in Christ and are with him, are much more happy than living saints; since they are
freed from sin; are out of the reach of Satan's temptations; are no more liable to darkness and
desertions; are freed from all doubts and fears; cease from all their labours, toil, and trouble;
and are delivered from all afflictions, persecutions, and oppressions; which is not the case of
living saints: and besides, the joys which they possess, the company they are always in, and the
work they are employed about, give them infinitely the preference to all on earth; see Rev_14:13.
HE RY, “The temptations of their condition. 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 (Ecc_4:2, Ecc_4:3); 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. Paul, Act_20:24, Phi_1:23), it is our praise, but, if (as
here) only for the sake of the miseries that attend it, it is our infirmity, and we
judge therein after the flesh, as Job and Elijah did. 1. He here thinks those happy
who have ended this miserable life, have done their part and quitted the stage; “I
praised the dead that are already dead, slain outright, or that had a speedy
passage through the world, made a short cut over the ocean of life, dead already,
before they had well begun to live; I was pleased with their lot, and, had it been in
their own choice, should have praised their wisdom for but looking into the world
and then retiring, as not liking it. I concluded that it is better with them than with
the living that are yet alive and that is all, dragging the long and heavy chain of
life, and wearing out its tedious minutes.” This may be compared not with
Job_3:20, Job_3:21, but with Rev_14:13, where, in times of persecution (and such
Solomon is here describing), it is not the passion of man, but the Spirit of God, that
says, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Note, The
condition of the saints that are dead, and gone to rest with God, is upon many
accounts better and more desirable than the condition of living saints that are yet
continued in their work and warfare. 2. He thinks those happy who never began
this miserable life; nay, they are happiest of all: He that has not been is happier
than both they. Better never to have been born than be born to see the evil work
that is done under the sun, to see so much wickedness committed, so much wrong
done, and not only to be in no capacity to mend the matter, but to suffer ill for
doing well. A good man, how calamitous a condition soever he is in in this world,
cannot have cause to wish he had never been born, since he is glorifying the Lord
even in the fires, and will be happy at last, for ever happy. Nor ought any to wish so
while they are alive, for while there is life there is hope; a man is never undone till
he is in hell.
JAMISO , “A profane sentiment if severed from its connection; but just in its bearing on
Solomon’s scope. If religion were not taken into account (Ecc_3:17, Ecc_3:19), to die as soon as
possible would be desirable, so as not to suffer or witness “oppressions”; and still more so, not to
be born at all (Ecc_7:1). Job (Job_3:12; Job_21:7), David (Psa_73:3, etc.), Jeremiah (Jer_12:1),
Habakkuk (Hab_1:13), all passed through the same perplexity, until they went into the
sanctuary, and looked beyond the present to the “judgment” (Psa_73:17; Hab_2:20; Hab_3:17,
Hab_3:18). Then they saw the need of delay, before completely punishing the wicked, to give
space for repentance, or else for accumulation of wrath (Rom_2:15); and before completely

rewarding the godly, to give room for faith and perseverance in tribulation (Psa_92:7-12).
Earnests, however, are often even now given, by partial judgments of the future, to assure us, in
spite of difficulties, that God governs the earth.
TRAPP, “Ecclesiastes 4:2 Wherefore I praised the dead which areALREADY dead more than the living
which are yet alive.
VER 2. Wherefore I praised the dead.] Because they are out of the reach of wrong doers; and if dead in
the Lord, they have ENTERED into peace, they do rest in their beds, each one walking in his
uprightness." [Isaiah 57:2] But if otherwise, men had better do anything, suffer anything here than die; since
by death, as by a trap door, they enter into those terrors and torments that shall never either mend or end.
Men, like silly fishes, see one another caught and jerked out of the pond of life but they see not, alas! the
fire and pan into the which they are cast that die in their sins. Oh it had been better, surely, for such if they
had never been born, as Christ said of Judas, than thus to be "brought forth to the murderer" [Hosea 9:14] -
to the old manslayer - to be hurled into hell, there to suffer such things as they shall never be able to avoid
or abide.
PULPIT, “In view of these patent wrongs Koheleth loses all enjoyment of life. Wherefore (and) I praised
the dead which areALREADY dead; or, who died long ago, and thus have escaped the
miseries which they would have had to endure. It must,INDEED , have been a bitter
experience which elicited such an avowal. To die and be forgotten an Oriental would look upon as the most
calamitous of destinies. More than the living which are yet alive. For these have before them the prospect
of a long endurance of oppression and suffering (comp. Ecc_7:1; Job_3:13, etc.). The Greek gnome says—
Κρεῖσσον τὸ µὴ ζῇν ἐστὶν ἢ ζῇν ἀθλίως
"Better to die than lead a wretched life."
The Septuagint version is scarcely a rendering of our present text: "Above the living, as many as are living
until now."
PULPIT, “Pessimism.
It would be a mistake to regard this language as expressing the deliberate and final conviction of the author
of Ecclesiastes. It represents a mood of his mind, and indeed of many a mind, oppressed by the sorrows,
the wrongs, and the perplexities of human life. Pessimism is at the root a philosophy; but its manifestation is
in a habit or tendency of the mind, such as may be recognized in many who are altogether strange to
speculative thinking. The pessimism of the East anticipated that of modern Europe. Though there is no
reason for connecting the morbid state of mind recorded in this Book of Ecclesiastes with the Buddhism of
India, both alike bear witness to the despondency which is naturally produced in the mental habit of not a
few who are perplexed and discouraged by the untoward circumstances of human life.
I. THE UNQUESTIONABLE FACTS UPON WHICH PESSIMISM IS BASED.
1. The unsatisfying nature of the pleasures of life. Men set their hearts upon the attainment of enjoyments,
wealth, greatness, etc. When they gain what they seek, the satisfaction expected does not follow. The eye is
not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. Disappointed and unhappy, the votary of pleasure is
"soured" with life itself, and asks, "Who will show us any good?"

2. The brevity, uncertainty, and transitoriness of life. Men find that there is no time for the acquirements, the
pursuits, the aims, which seem to them essential to their earthly well-being. In many cases life is cut short;
but even when it is prolonged, it passes like the swift ships. It excites visions and hopes which in the nature
of things cannot be realized.
3. The actual disappointment of plans and the failure of efforts. Men learn the limitations of their powers;
they find circumstances too strong for them; all that seemed desirable proves to be beyond their reach.
II. THE HABIT OF MIND IN WHICH PESSIMIST CONSISTS.
1. It comes to be a steady conviction that life is not worth living. Is life a boon at ally why should it be
prolonged, when it is ever proving itself insufficient for human wants, unsatisfying to human aspirations? The
young and hopeful may take a different view, but their illusions will speedily be dispelled. There is nothing so
unworthy of appreciation and desire as life.
2. The dead are regarded as more fortunate than the living; and, indeed, it is a misfortune to be born, to
come into this earthly life at all. "The sooner it's over, the sooner asleep." Consciousness is grief and misery;
they only are blest who are at rest in the painless Nirvana of eternity.
III. THE ERRORS INVOLVED IN THE PESSIMISTIC INFERENCE AND CONCLUSION.
1. It is assumed that pleasure is the chief good. A great living philosopher deliberately takes it for granted
that the question—Is life worth living? is to be decided by the question—Does life yield a surplus of
agreeable feeling? This being so, it is natural that the disappointed and unhappy should drift into pessimism.
But, as a matter of fact, the test is one altogether unjust, and can only be justified, upon the supposition that
man is merely a creature that feels. It is the hedonist who is disappointed that becomes the pessimist.
2. There is a higher end for man than pleasure, viz. spiritual cultivation and progress. It is better to grow in
the elements of a noble character than to be filled with all manner of delights. Man was made in the likeness
of God, and his discipline on earth is to recover and to perfect that likeness. 3. This higher end may in some
cases be attained by the hard process of distress and disappointment. This seems to have been lost sight of
in the mood which found expression in the language of these verses. Yet experience and reflection alike
concur to assure us that it may be good for us to be afflicted. It not infrequently happens that
"The soul
Gives up a part to take to it the whole."

APPLICATION . As there are times and circumstances in all persons lives which are naturally
conducive to pessimistic habits, it behooves us to be, at such times and in such circumstances, especially
upon our guard lest we half consciously fall into habits so destructive of real spiritual well-being and
usefulness. The conviction that Infinite Wisdom and Righteousness are at the heart of the universe, and not
blind unconscious fate and force, is the one preservative; and to this it is the Christian's privilege to add an
affectionate faith in God as the Father of the spirits of all flesh, and the benevolent Author of life and
immortal salvation to all who receive his gospel and confide in the mediation of his blessed Son.—T.
as in Ecc_9:11, and in 1Ch_5:20 (comp. Berth, on this passage, and also Ewald, § 851 c).—More than the
living which are yet alive.— ò◌ַ ã◌ֶ ð◌ּ ◌ָ ä contracted from ò◌ַ ã ä◌ֵ ï , ò◌ַ ãÎä◌ֵ ð◌ּ ◌ָ ä adhuc, yet. For the
sentence comp.Ecc_7:1 f.; also Herodotus 1:31: ἄìåéíïí ἀíèñþðῳ ôåèíÜíáé ìÜëëïí ἢ æþåéí , as
also Ecc_4:6 of Menander: Æùῆò ðïíçñᾶò èÜíáôïò áἰñåôþôåñïò .
Ecc_4:3. Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not been.—For this intensifying of the previous
thought, comp. Ecc_6:3-5; Ecc_7:1; Job_3:13 ff.; Jer_20:18, and Theognis, Gnom., v. 425 ss.:
ÐÜíôùí ìὲí ìὴ öῦíáé ἐðé÷èïíßïéóéí ἄñéóôïí ,
Ìçä ’ ἐóéäåῖí áὐãὰò ὀîÝïò ἡåëßïõ ,
Öýíôá ä ’, ὅðùò ὤêéóôá ðýëáò ’ Áúäáï ðåñῆóáé ,
Êáὶ êåῖóèáé ðïëëὴí ãῆí ἐðáìçóÜìåíïí .
Other parallels will be found in the classic authors, as Sophocles (Œd. Col., 1143 s.), Euritides.
(Cresphontes fragm.13) Chalcidamus, Posidipp., Philemon, Val. Maxim. Ecc_2:6; Solinus (polyhist,
e. 10), etc. Examine also Knobel on this passage, and Hengstenberg, p. 160 f. The difference between such
complaints in heathen authors, and the same in the mouth of our own, is found in the fact that the latter, like
Job and Jeremiah, does not stop at the gloomy reflections expressed in the lamentation, but, by proceeding
to expressions of a more cheerful nature,announces that the truth found in them is incomplete, and only
partial.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, “Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the
living which are yet alive.
The applause of the dead regulated, vindicated and improved
Scripture itself sets us an example of applauding the virtues of the departed; but I think that in
our funeral sermons, in our obituaries and on our sepulchres, there is much which needs to be

regulated.
I. It must be qualified.
1. We are not to praise the dead with indiscriminate eulogy; for there is such a thing as
confounding moral distinctions, as smiling alike on vice and virtue.
2. We are not to praise the dead with exaggerated panegyric. For it should never be
forgotten, that however the grace of God has formed the subject of it to excellence, he was
still the possessor of remaining moral infirmities.
3. We are not to praise the dead in a spirit of discontent with life.
4. We are not to praise the dead in the exercise of gratified envy.
5. We ought not to praise the dead in the spirit of relative pride.
6. In one word—we should not praise the dead without a humble and grateful recollection
that all their gifts and virtues proceeded from God. Let the survivor not glory in the
erudition, in the riches, in the wealth or virtue of the deceased, but let him glory only in the
Lord.
II. This eulogy is to be justified. It may be so by a variety of reasons.
1. There is that of Scripture precedent. It speaks, in high terms, of the distinguished faith of
Abraham, the patience of Job, the meekness of Moses, the devotion of the man after God’s
own heart, the wisdom of a Solomon, the magnanimity of a Daniel, the fortitude of a
Stephen, the humanity of a Dorcas.
2. This procedure may also be sanctioned on the ground of utility. How often does the
perusal of the memoirs of eminent persons excite desires in the hearts of survivors to imbibe
their sentiments, to catch their spirit, and to imitate their example.
3. The principal grounds on which we are justified in praising the pious dead are connected
with themselves, as—
(1) The blessedness of their condition on which they have at once entered.
(2) The developed excellences of their character.
(3) The usefulness of their course.
For much of this as may have been apparent while they were yet alive, much more is very often
discerned after their decease. Then are discerned in their diaries and records what were the
sacred principles on which they acted, and how they were constrained by the love of Christ to
live not unto themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again. Not till the crisis of
death, too, has much of the usefulness of the Christian minister been made apparent.
III. The sentiment in the text is to be improved. If the question be asked—in what way shall I
praise departed ministers? I answer—
1. By repenting of the treatment you often showed them while they were alive.
2. By recalling to serious reflection the important subjects of their ministry.
3. By an imitation of the excellencies with which they were clothed.
4. By meditating on your joint responsibility with them at the bar of God.
5. By a devout application to the great Head of the Church to raise up men of similar and
surpassing qualifications to carry on the interests of religion in the Church and in the world.
(J. Clayton.)

Praising the dead more than the living
I. It is common. We see it in the political, ecclesiastical, and domestic sphere. So it has become a
proverb, that the best men must die ever to have their virtues recognized. Why is this?
1. The dead are no longer competitors.
2. Social love buries their defects. In all, the great Father of Love has put a deep fountain of
sympathy. Death unseals it, melts it, and causes it to flow forth in such copious streams as
drown all the imperfections of the departed.
II. It is immoral.
1. It is not right. Virtue should be recognized and honoured wherever seen; and more so in
the duties and struggles of life than in the reminiscenees of departed worth.
2. It is not generous. That husband is mean and despicable who ignores the virtues of a
noble wife while living.
3. It is unreal. To praise virtues in a man when dead, which were ever unnoticed when living,
is hypocritical. (Homilist.)
HAWKER, “Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are
yet alive.
Solomon was not singular in this opinion: a voice from heaven proclaimed the same, Rev_14:13.
But, Reader! it is blessed to live, or die; provided we live, or die, in the Lord. Paul’s situation was
the desirable one: Php_1:21.
3
But better than both
is he who has not yet been,
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.
CLARKE, “Which hath not yet been - Better never to have been born into the world, than
to have seen and suffered so many miseries.
GILL, “Yea, better is he than both they which hath not yet been,.... That is, an unborn
person; who is preferred both to the dead that have seen oppression, and to the living that are
under it; see Job_3:10. This supposes a person to be that never was, a mere nonentity; and the
judgment made is according to sense, and regards the dead purely as such, and so as free from

evils and sorrows, without any respect to their future state and condition; for otherwise an
unborn person is not happier than the dead that die in Christ, and live with him: and it can only
be true of those that perish, of whom indeed it might be said, that it would have been better for
them if they had never been born, according to those words of Christ, Mat_26:24; and is
opposed to the maxim of some philosophers, that a miserable being is better than none at all.
The Jews, from this passage, endeavour to prove the pre-existence of human souls, and suppose
that such an one is here meant, which, though created, was not yet sent into this world in a
body, and so had never seen evil and sorrow; and this way some Christian writers have gone. It
has been interpreted also of the Messiah, who in Solomon's time had not yet been a man, and
never known sorrow, which he was to do, and has, and so more happy than the dead or living.
But these are senses that will not bear; the first is best; and the design is to show the great
unhappiness of mortals, that even a nonentity is preferred to them;
who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun? the evil works of
oppressors, and the sorrows of the oppressed.
HE RY, “He thinks those happy who never began this miserable life; nay, they are
happiest of all: He that has not been is happier than both they. Better never to
have been born than be born to see the evil work that is done under the sun, to see
so much wickedness committed, so much wrong done, and not only to be in no
capacity to mend the matter, but to suffer ill for doing well. A good man, how
calamitous a condition soever he is in in this world, cannot have cause to wish he
had never been born, since he is glorifying the Lord even in the fires, and will be
happy at last, for ever happy. Nor ought any to wish so while they are alive, for
while there is life there is hope; a man is never undone till he is in hell.
HAWKER 3-6, “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. (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. (5) The fool foldeth his hands together, and
eateth his own flesh. (6) Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands
full with travail and vexation of spirit.
If we read these verses, as they refer to the carnal, graceless, and ungodly, how striking they are.
What is life, in all its highest attainments out of Christ? But if we read them in reference to a
soul in grace, the handful only with Jesus, yea, the cup of cold water which Jesus gives, is
blessed. This is what the apostle calls, having nothing, and yet possessing all things. 2Co_6:10.
PULPIT, “Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been. Thus we have Job's passionate
appeal (Job_3:11), "Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came forth," etc.?
And in the Greek poets the sentiment of the text is re-echoed. Thus Theognis, 'Paroen.,' 425—
Πάντων µὲν µὴ φῦναι ἐπιχθονίοισιν ἄριστον
Μηδ ἐσιδεῖν αὐγὰς ὀξέος ἠελίου
Φύντα δ ὅπως ὤκιστα πύλας Ἀΐ́δαο περῆσαι

Καὶ κεῖσθαι πολλὴν γῆν ἐπαµησάµενον
"'Tis best for mortals never to be born,
Nor ever see the swift sun's burning rays;
Next best, when born, to pass the gates of death
Right speedily, and rest beneath the earth."
Cicero, 'Tusc. Disp.,' 1.48, renders some lines from a lost play of Euripides to the same effect—
"Nam nos decebat, caetus celebrantes, domum
Lugere, ubi esset aliquis in lucern editus,
Humanae vitae varia reputantes mala;
At qui labores metre finisset graves,
Hunc omni amicos lauds et laetitia exsequi."
Herodotus (5. 4) relates how some of the Thracians had a custom of bemoaning a birth and rejoicing at a
death. In our own Burial Service we thank God for delivering the departed "out of the miseries of this sinful
world." Keble alludes to this barbarian custom in his poem on' The Third Sunday after Easter.' Speaking of a
Christian mother's joy at a child's birth, he says—
"No need for her to weep
Like Thracian wives of yore,
Save when in rapture still and deep
Her thankful heart runs o'er.
They mourned to trust their treasure on the main,
Sure of the storm, unknowing of their guide:
Welcome to her the peril and the pain,
For well she knows the home where they may safely hide."
, sqq.; 'Gorgias,' p. 512, A.) The Buddhist religion does not recommend suicide as an escape from the evils
of life. It indeed regards man asMASTER OF his own life; but it considers suicide foolish,
as it merely transfers a man's position, the thread of life having to be taken up again under less favorable
circumstances. See 'A Buddhist Catechism,' by Subhadra Bhikshu.Who hath not seen the evil work that
is done under the sun. He repeats the words, "under the sun," from verse 1, in order to show that he is
speaking of facts that came under his own regard—outward phenomena which any thoughtful observer
might notice (so again verse 7).
TRAPP, “Ecclesiastes 4:3 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.
Ver. 3. Yea, better is he than both they.] The heathen could say, Optimum non nasci: proximum mori.Life is
certainly a blessing of God, though never so calamitous. Why is living man sorrowful? saith the prophet:
[Lamentations 3:39] and it is as if he should say, Man, if alive, hath some cause of comfort amidst all his
miseries; if he may escape though but "with the skin of his teeth," [Job 19:20] and have his life for a prey, he
should see matter of thankfulness , and say, "It is the Lord’s mercy that I am not consumed" [Lamentations
3:22] - that I am yet on this side hell. But those that have set their hearts upon earthly things, if ever they
lose them, they are filled almost with unmedicineable sorrows; so as they will praise the dead above the
living, and wish they had never been born. These are they whom Solomon in this sentence is by some
thought to personate.
STEDMAN Oppression almost invariably preys on the helpless, the weak and the infirm, the
people who cannot defend themselves. The Searcher knows this. Notice how he records the
anguish, the misery that it causes. He speaks of "the tears of the oppressed," the weeping, the
sorrow and the brokenness which the oppressed feel over something they can do nothing about.
Then he twice categorizes the awful sense of helplessness that is evoked by oppression. There is
"no one to comfort" the oppressed of a world filled with this kind of thing. The hopeless and the
helpless ask, "Who can we turn to? Where can we go for deliverance?" They feel that death
would be preferable to what they are going through; they even come to the point where they wish
they had never been born. Job felt that way. "Let the day perish wherein I was born" {Job 3:3},
he said. "Why did I not die at birth?" (Job 3)
LANGE, “Ecc_4:3-16. That fortune often shows itself deceptive and unreliable enough in civil life, and in
the highest spheres of human society, is illustrated by the double example of an old incapable king whom a
younger person pushes aside, and that of his successor, an aspirant from a lower class, who, in spite of his
transitory popularity, nevertheless falls into forgetfulness, like so many others. Like the fact alluded to
in Ecc_9:13-16, this example seems to be taken from the immediate contemporary experiences of the
author, but can only, with great difficulty, be more nearly defined on its historical basis. Only the first clause
of 4:18 suits the history of Joseph, and, at most, Ecc_4:13 contains an allusion to David as the successor of
Saul; Ecc_4:15 may allude to Rehoboam as successor of Solomon, and Ecc_4:14 perhaps to Jeroboam.
But other features again destroy these partial resemblances every time, and demonstrate the impossibility of
discovering any one of these persons in the “poor but wise youth.” Thus, too, the remaining hypotheses that
have been presented concerning the enigmatical fact (e.g., the references to Amaziah and Joash, and to
Nimrod and Abraham), can only be sustained by the most arbitrary applications. This is especially true of
Hitzig’s supposition that the old and foolish king is the Onias mentioned by Josephus (Antiquities Ecc_12:4)
as High Priest and ðñïóôÜôçò ôïῦ ëáïῦ , and that the youth supplanting him was his sister’s son, Joseph,
who, if he did not succeed in robbing him of the priestly office (which his son Simon inherited)
[see Sir_50:1 ff.], at least wrested from him the ðñïóôáóßá i.e., the lucrative office of a farmer of the Syrian
revenues that he had then exercised twenty-two years, notINDEED to the satisfaction of the
people, but in a very selfish and tyrannical manner. This hypothesis does all honor to the learned acumen of
its originator, but has so many weak points as to forbid its acceptance. For in the first place the ruler of a
realm is portrayed in Ecc_4:15-16, and not a rich Judaic-Syrian revenue collector; secondly Onias was high-
priest and not king, and lost only a part of his functions and power by that Joseph; thirdly, the assumption
that the author exaggerates petty circumstances and occurrences in a manner not historical, is destitute of
the necessary proof; fourthly, the supposition forming the base of the entire hypothesis of an authorship of
Koheleth towards the end of the third century B.C. is quite as arbitrary and bare of proof; comp. Int., § 4,
Obs, 3. We must, therefore, refrain from specially defining the event to which these verses allude; in which
case the two following suppositions remain possible: either the author feigns an example, or, in other words,

has presented the contents of Ecc_4:13-16 as a possible ease (thus think Elster, Hengstenberg,
Vaihinger, el al.), or he refers to an event in the history of the nation or State, at his period, not sufficiently
known to us (the- opinion of Umbreit, Ewald, Bleek, etc.). In the latter case, we could hardly think of a
change of succession in the series of Persian monarchs; for the history of the rise of the eunuch Bagoas
about the year 339 B.C. harmonizes too little with the present description to be identified with it, but we
would sooner think of such a change in some one of the States subject to Persia, as Phenicia or Egypt.—
Better is a poor and wise child, etc.—Clearly a general sentence for the introduction of the following
illustration: “better” not here said of moral excellence, but “happier,” “better off,” just
as èåֹá in Ecc_4:3; Ecc_4:9.“Wise” here is equivalent, to “adroit, cunning,” comp. Job_5:13; 2Sa_13:3.—
Who will no more be admonished.— é◌ָ ã◌ַ ò ì◌ְ with the infinitive,
as Ecc_5:1; Ecc_6:8; Ecc_10:16; Exo_17:16.
4
And I saw that all labor and all achievement spring from
man's envy of his neighbor. This too is meaningless, a
chasing after the wind.
BAR ES, “Every right work - Rather, every success in work.
For this ... - i. e., “This successful work makes the worker an object of envy.” Some
understand the meaning to be, “this work is the effect of the rivalry of man with his neighbor.”
CLARKE, “For this a man is envied - It is not by injustice and wrong only that men suffer,
but through envy also. For if a man act uprightly and properly in the world, he soon becomes the
object of his neighbor’s envy and calumny too. Therefore the encouragement to do good, to act
an upright part, is very little. This constitutes a part of the vain and empty system of human life.
GILL, “Again I considered all travail, and every right work,.... The pains that men take
to do right works. Some apply themselves, with great diligence and industry, to the study of the
liberal arts and sciences; and to attain the knowledge of languages; and to writing books, for the
improvement of those things, and the good of mankind: and others employ themselves in
mechanic arts, and excel in them, and bring their works to great perfection and accuracy; when
they might expect to be praised and commended, and have thanks given them by men. But
instead thereof, so it is,
that for this a man is envied of his neighbour; who will be sure to find fault with what he
has done, speak contemptibly of him and his work, and traduce him among men. This is also
true of moral works; which are right, when done from a right principle, from love to God, in
faith, and with a view to the glory of God; and which when done, and ever so well done, draw
upon a man the envy of the wicked, as may be observed in the case of Cain and Abel, 1Jo_3:12;
though some understand this, not passively, of the envy which is brought upon a man, and he

endures, for the sake of the good he excels in; but actively, of the spirit of emulation with which
he does it; though the work he does, as to the matter of it, is right; yet the manner of doing it,
and the spirit with which he does it, are wrong; he does not do it with any good affection to the
thing itself, nor with any good design, only from a spirit of emulation to outdo his neighbour: so
the Targum paraphrases it,
"this is the emulation that a man emulates his neighbour, to do as he; if he emulates him to do
good, the heavenly Word does good to him; but if he emulates him to do evil, the heavenly Word
does evil to him;''
and to this sense Jarchi; compare with this, Phi_1:15.
This is also vanity, and vexation of spirit; whether it be understood in the one sense or the
other; how dissatisfying and vexatious is it, when a man has taken a great deal of pains to do
right works for public good, instead of having thanks and praise, is reproached and calumniated
for it? and if he does a right thing, and yet has not right ends and views in it, it stands for
nothing; it has only the appearance of good, but is not truly so, and yields no solid peace and
comfort.
HE RY, “Here Solomon returns to the observation and consideration of the vanity
and vexation of spirit that attend the business of this world, which he had spoken
of before, Ecc_2:11.
I. If a man be acute, and dexterous, and successful in his business, he gets the ill-will of his
neighbours, Ecc_4:4. Though he takes a great deal of pains, and goes through all travail, does
not get his estate easily, but it costs him a great deal of hard labour, nor does he get it
dishonestly, he wrongs no man, defrauds no man, but by every right work, by applying himself
to his own proper business, and managing it by all the rules of equity and fair dealing, yet for
this he is envied of his neighbour, and the more for the reputation he has got by his honesty.
This shows, 1. What little conscience most men have, that they will bear a grudge to a neighbour,
give him an ill word and do him an ill turn, only because he is more ingenious and industrious
than themselves, and has more of the blessing of heaven. Cain envied Abel, Esau Jacob, and Saul
David, and all for their right works. This is downright diabolism. 2. What little comfort wise and
useful men must expect to have in this world. Let them behave themselves ever so cautiously,
they cannot escape being envied; and who can stand before envy? Pro_27:4. Those that excel in
virtue will always be an eye-sore to those that exceed in vice, which should not discourage us
from any right work, but drive us to expect the praise of it, not from men, but from God, and not
to count upon satisfaction and happiness in the creature; for, if right works prove vanity and
vexation of spirit, no works under the sun can prove otherwise. But for every right work a man
shall be accepted of his God, and then he needs not mind though he be envied of his neighbour,
only it may make him love the world the less.
JAMISO , “right — rather, “prosperous” (see on Ecc_2:21). Prosperity, which men so much
covet, is the very source of provoking oppression (Ecc_4:1) and “envy,” so far is it from
constituting the chief good.
ELLICOTT, “4. A man is envied — Jealousy is here a more fitting term than envy, for envy relates to what
is now in possession, jealousy to what is now inPROCESS of acquirement. But the remark here is
ofACTIVITY and skill now at work, so that jealousy is the true word. Assuming, as Koheleth does in this
discussion, from Ecclesiastes 3:22, that there is no future life, he is prepared to suggest that jealousy of one
another is the main cause of men’s efforts in life. The margin gives here the true sense, or at least the
better, This springs from a man’s jealousy towards his neighbour.

COFFMAN, “THE WORTHLESSNESS OF LABOR
"Then I saw all labor, and every skillful work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbor. This also
is a vanity and a striving after wind. The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
Better is a handful with quietness, than two handfuls and striving after wind."
"For this a man is envied of his neighbor" (Ecclesiastes 4:4). "Some understand the meaning of this
verse as a description of work which is the effect of rivalry with a neighbor."[3] This rendition carries that
implication: "I saw that all a man's toil and skill is expended through the desire to surpass his neighbor; this,
too, is an empty thing and a clutching at the wind."[4]
In this paragraph the author returns to the question that he asked in Ecclesiastes 1:3, "What does man have
to show for all his trouble"? In all such statements as this, Solomon's viewpoint is centered absolutely upon
the present world, taking intoACCOUNT no thought whatever of God.
Waddey's comment on this paragraph: "In a godless world, sinners envy and resent another's success,
rather than rejoicing in it; and in contrast he mentions the lazy fool who, rather than work, `foldeth his hands
together' in rest, and `eateth his own flesh,' he consumes his inheritance."[5] Another view of the fool
mentioned here is that he represents the envious man. "The envious man is here exhibited in the attitude of
the sluggard (Proverbs 6:10)."[6] In this understanding of it, the fool's eating his own flesh would mean the
same as the common saying that, "He was eating his heart out with envy."
"Better is a handful with quietness" (Ecclesiastes 4:6). Here again we find thoughts that are identifiable
with Solomon, as in Proverbs 15:16-17; 17:1 and in Proverbs 16:8:
ANOTHER WORD ON THE WORTHLESSNESS OF LABOR
"These two paragraphs on labor view it from different perspectives; first, from the perspective of envy, and
secondly, from the perspective of solitariness."[7] Also in this second paragraph, aNUMBER of
illustrations are given to illuminate the real point.
PULPIT, “Again, I considered all travail, and every right work. The word rendered "right" is kishron (see
on Ecc_2:21), and means rather "dexterity," "success." Kohe-leth says that he reflected upon the industry
that men exhibit, and the skill and dexterity with which they ply their incessant toil. There is no reference to
moral rectitude in the reflection, and the allusion to the ostracism of Aristides for being called "Just"
overshoots the mark (see Wordsworth, in loc.). Septuagint, σύµπασαν ἀνρίαν τοῦ ποιήµατος , "all manliness
of his work." That for this a man is envied of his neighbor. Kinah may mean either "object of envy" or
"envious rivalry;" i.e. the clause may be translated as above, or, as in the Revised Version margin, "it cometh
of a man's rivalry with his neighbor." The Septuagint is ambiguous, Ὅτι αὐτὸ ζῆλος ἀνδρὸς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑταίρου
αὐτοῦ , "That this is a man's envy from his comrade;" Vulgate, Industrias animadverti patere invidiae
proximi,"Lay open to a neighbor's envy." In the first case the thought is that unusual skill and success
expose a man to envy and ill will, which rob labor of all enjoyment. In the second case the writer says that
this superiority and dexterity arise from a mean motive, an envious desire to outstrip a neighbor, and, based
on such low ground, can lead to nothing but vanity and vexation of spirit, a striving after wind. The former
explanation seems more in accordance with Koheleth's gloomy view. Success itself is no guarantee of
happiness; the malice and ill feeling which it invariably occasions are necessarily a source of pain and
distress.
ISBET, “A DISAPPOINTING WORLD
‘Vanity and vexation of spirit.’
Ecc_4:4
Among the examples in proof of the imperfection and inconstancy of earthly happiness which the Preacher

Ecclesiastes 4 commentary

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