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Mark Dunagan Commentaries

Ecclesiastes 4:3

"But better off than both of them is the one who has never existed, who has never seen the evil activity that is done under the sun."

Points To Note:

1 If this life is all there is, then it would be better not to be born, then to experience the pain and suffering that this life has to offer. 2. Note, the person who hasn't been born, has never existed. Hence, the soul doesn't have. pre-existence (as taught by Mormonism). 3. If there is no life beyond this life, then the living have only the prospect of looking forward to seeing and experiencing suffering.

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See also Ecclesiastes 4:3 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Ecclesiastes 4:3. _WHICH HATH NOT YET BEEN_] Better never to have been born into the world, than to have _seen_ and _suffered_ so many miseries....

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    CHAPTER 4 OBSERVATIONS OF DIFFERENT WRONGS _ 1. Concerning oppressions (Ecclesiastes 4:1)_ 2. Concerning envy of fools and the rich (Ecclesiastes 4:4) 3. Concerning the miser (Ecclesiast

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    ECCLESIASTES 4. A GLOOMY SURVEY. The chapter falls into four parts, which treat respectively of oppression (Ecclesiastes 4:1), rivalry (Ecclesiastes 4:4), isolation amounting to self-torture (Ecclesia...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    BETTER. See note on Ecclesiastes 2:24....

  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

    _Yea, better is he than both they_ As the utterance of a personal feeling of despair we have a parallel in the words of Job (Ecclesiastes 3:11-16). As expressing a more generalised view of life we hav...

  • Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

    YEA, BETTER IS HE THAN BOTH THEY— _Nay, I say, he is happier than either, who is not yet come to life, who hath not seen the misery that prevaileth under the sun._ Desvoeux. _ECCLESIASTES 4:4. AGAIN,...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    C. GUIDELINES FOR WORKING WITH GOD UNDER ALL CIRCUMSTANCES Ecclesiastes 4:1-16 1. How to work under oppression Ecclesiastes 4:1-3 TEXT 4:1-3 1 Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression whic...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    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. WHO HATH NOT SEEN - nor experienced....

  • Darby's translation notes (1890)

    4:3 fortunate (h-3) Or 'better.'...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    VICISSITUDES OF LIFE. 'OH, THE PITY OF IT!' 1-3. The mass of human suffering and the absence of pity are such that better off are the dead and still more the unborn. It is not only through God's ord...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    THE TEACHER SEARCHES FOR THE PURPOSE OF OUR LIVES BOOK OF ECCLESIASTES _HILDA BRIGHT AND KITTY PRIDE_ CHAPTER 4 This chapter contains several subjects. 1. PEOPLE WHO SUFFER – ECCLESIASTES 4:1-...

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    וְ טֹוב֙ מִ שְּׁנֵיהֶ֔ם אֵ֥ת אֲשֶׁר ־עֲדֶ֖ן

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    SECOND SECTION The Quest Of The Chief Good In Devotion To The Affairs Of Business Ecclesiastes 3:1 - Ecclesiastes 5:20 I. IF the true Good is not to be found in the School where Wisdom utters her vo...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    AND BY HUMAN INJUSTICE AND PERVERSITY. Ecclesiastes 3:16; Ecclesiastes 4:1 But not only are our endeavours to find the "good" of our labours thwarted by the gracious, inflexible laws of the just God...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    From this general survey the preacher returned to examine the condition of the beings whom he had described as being no better than the beasts. He looked out upon them, and saw them in suffering, and...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Yea, (c) better [is he] than both they, who hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun. (c) He speaks according to the judgment of the flesh which cannot abide to f...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    _Born. It is better to have no existence than to be in eternal misery, Matthew xxvi. 24. But the affliction of the just procureth glory for them. (Worthington) --- The pagan sages observed, that it wa...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    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...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 1 THROUGH 12. The Book of Ecclesiastes is, up to a certain point, the converse of the Book of Proverbs. (see NOTE TO PROVERBS below) It is the experience of a...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    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 3:1...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    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 n...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Wherefore I praised the dead_, &c. I judged them less miserable. For this is certain, that setting aside the future life, which Solomon doth not meddle with in the present debate, and considering the...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    PERSONAL MISFORTUNES...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    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, for, not having been born, he has been spared the pain of witnessing the many evi...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-3 It grieved Solomon to see might prevail against right. Wherever we turn, we see melancholy proofs of the wickedness and misery of mankind, who try to create trouble to themselves and to each othe...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    WHICH HATH NOT YET BEEN; who was never born. How this is true, see on the foregoing verse. NOT SEEN, i.e. not felt; for as _seeing good_ is put for enjoying it, ECCLESIASTES 2:24, so seeing evil is pu...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Ecclesiastes 4:3 better H2896 both H8147 existed H5728 seen H7200 (H8804) evil H7451 work H4639 done H6213 ...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    CHAPTER 4 THE DREADFULNESS OF OPPRESSION. GUIDANCE ON LIVING. This chapter begins with considering the dreadfulness of oppression and then continues with thoughts on living, giving both good and bad...

  • Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible

    THE DREADFULNESS OF OPPRESSION (ECCLESIASTES 4:1). Having been faced up to the injustice in the world, and especially the injustice in its courts of justice, the Preacher now turns to consider oppres...

  • Sermon Bible Commentary

    Ecclesiastes 3:1 A profound gloom rests on the second act or section of this drama. It teaches us that we are helpless in the iron grip of laws which we had no voice in making; that we often lie at th...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Discontent and impatience because of the oppressions and iniquities of life. CHARACTERS: Solomon. CONCLUSION: The world is full of trouble. By reason of man's perversity, he is ever distur...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Ecclesiastes 4:2. _Wherefore I praised the dead more than the living,_ who are robbed, fleeced, and exposed to incessant afflictions, from oppression and war. Solomon alludes to extreme cases, such as...

  • The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

    ECCLESIASTES—NOTE ON ECCLESIASTES 4:2 Some people’s circumstances are so tragic that they welcome death. The Preacher considers those who have not yet lived to be the most fortunate. This is because t...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    CRITICAL NOTES.— ECCLESIASTES 4:1. SO I RETURNED.] Passing from the reflections of the last chapter to a new subject of contemplation. _They had no comforter_. The repetition of this phrase is intend...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION ECCLESIASTES 4:1 Section 5. Koheleth proceeds to give further illustrations of _man_'_s inability to be the architect of his own happiness_._ _There are many things which interrupt or des...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    So I returned, and I considered all of the oppressions that are done under the sun: and the tears of those that are oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    Ecclesiastes 1:14; Ecclesiastes 2:17; Ecclesiastes 6:3; Jeremiah 20:17;...

  • Wesley's Explanatory Notes

    Better is he — Who was never born. Not seen — Not felt: for as seeing good is put for enjoying it, so seeing evil is put for suffering it....

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Old Testament