Ecclesiastes 4:3
BSB · Public Domain (CC0)“But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.”
A short, plain-language explanation of Ecclesiastes 4:3 goes here — the kind of answer a reader (or an AI assistant) can quote in one breath. Original meaning coming soon.
“But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.”
Berean Standard Bible · Public Domain (CC0)“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.”
King James Version · Public Domain“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.”
American Standard Version · Public Domain“And better than both of them <FI>is<Fi> he who hath not yet been, in that he hath not seen the evil work that hath been done under the sun.”
Young's Literal Translation · Public DomainOther passages that echo Ecclesiastes 4:3 — 13 related verses from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Job 3:10For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
- Job 3:16Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never sees daylight?
- Job 3:22who rejoice and greatly exult when they can find the grave?
- Job 10:18Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
- Psalms 55:6I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.
- Ecclesiastes 1:14I have seen all the things that are done under the sun, and have found them all to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.
- Ecclesiastes 2:17So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.
- Ecclesiastes 6:3A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.
- Ecclesiastes 6:5The child, though neither seeing the sun nor knowing anything, has more rest than that man,
- Jeremiah 9:2If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.
- Jeremiah 20:17because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.
- Matthew 24:19How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
- Luke 23:29Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
Cross-reference data: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain) via OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).