Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 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.
3. 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 (Ecc 3:11-16). As expressing a more generalised view of life we have multiform echoes of the thought in the Greek writers, of whose influence, direct or indirect, the book presents so many traces. Thus we have in Theognis:
,
,
.
“Best lot for men is never to be born,
Nor ever see the bright rays of the morn:
Next best, when born, to haste with quickest tread
Where Hades’ gates are open for the dead,
And rest with much earth gathered for our bed.”
425 428.
Or in Sophocles:
, ,
,
, .
“Never to be at all
Excels all fame;
Quickly, next best, to pass
From whence we came.”
Oed. Col. 1225.
More remote but of yet deeper significance is the fact that the same feeling lies at the root of Buddhism and its search after Nirvana (annihilation or unconsciousness) as the one refuge from the burden of existence. Terrible as the depression thus indicated is, it is one step higher than the hatred of life which appeared in chs. Ecc 1:14, Ecc 2:17-18. That was simply the weariness of a selfish satiety; this, like the feeling of akya Mouni when he saw the miseries of old age and disease and death, and of the Greek Chorus just quoted, rose from the contemplation of the sorrows of humanity at large. It was better not to be than to see the evil work that was done under the sun. In marked contrast with this dark view of life we have the words: “Good were it for that man not to have been born” in Mat 26:24, as marking out an altogether exceptional instance of guilt and therefore of misery.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 3. Which hath not yet been] Better never to have been born into the world, than to have seen and suffered so many miseries.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes 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, Ecc 2:24, so seeing evil is put for suffering it, as hath been more than once observed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
3. not seennor experienced.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on 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 3:10. 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,
Mt 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3. Better not yet been The dead have suffered; the living now suffer. The abortion that perishes unborn, as infants which never saw light, escapes all suffering. “They have slept, they have been at rest.” Very wretched must he be to whom cold and dark non-existence seems better than the warm experiences of life and action. Yet it has many times been expressed, if not felt.
“Not to be born, never to see the sun,
No worldly blessing is a greater one.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ecc 4:3. 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.
Ecc 4:4. Again, I considered all travail I observed again all the labour, nay, all the most successful work, that for this, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Ecc 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: Lam 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” Lam 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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
better. See note on Ecc 2:24.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
better: Ecc 6:3-5, Job 3:10-16, Job 10:18, Job 10:19, Jer 20:17, Jer 20:18, Mat 24:19, Luk 23:29
who: Ecc 1:14, Ecc 2:17, Psa 55:6-11, Jer 9:2, Jer 9:3
Reciprocal: Ecc 1:3 – under Ecc 2:18 – I hated
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4:3 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 feel or see troubles.