Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 4:1
Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Preacher (Qohelet) speaks in first person, reflecting on what he has observed "under the sun." This is a meditative monologue, not an address to a specific audience, situated between his observations on judgment (3:16) and his preference for the dead over the living (4:2).
The words — The central noun is עשק ('ašaq, H6217), "oppression," a root carrying the sense of violent extortion or plundering rather than mere unfairness. The word "comforter" appears twice, framing the oppressed between two absences.
The thread — Ecclesiastes 3:16 places wickedness in the very seat of judgment; 5:8 names the oppression of the poor as a recurring provincial reality. Isaiah 5:7 echoes the same pattern from a divine vantage: God looked for justice and found bloodshed.
Why it lands — The verse offers no remedy, no appeal, no comforter; it presents a closed loop of power and suffering and asks the reader to acknowledge that the text itself will not resolve it. The Preacher's response in the next verse is not comfort but a grim preference for death, which forces the reader to confront what is being left unsaid.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 3:16 Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.
- Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the oppression of the poor and the denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be astonished at the matter; for one official is watched by a superior, and others higher still are over them.
- Isaiah 5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.
- 2 Timothy 4:16 At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
- Job 35:9 Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.
- Psalms 12:5 “For the cause of the oppressed and for the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says the LORD. “I will bring safety to him who yearns.”
- Psalms 42:3 My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
- Psalms 42:9 I say to God my Rock, “Why have You forgotten me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?”
- Isaiah 51:23 I will place it in the hands of your tormentors, who told you: ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you,’ so that you made your back like the ground, like a street to be traversed.”
- Isaiah 59:13 rebelling and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.