Bible Strands
Ecclesiastes 4:3
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
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Qoheleth addresses a general audience while reflecting on the futility of human toil and the superiority of the dead over the living. He speaks at a moment of existential comparison, evaluating whether nonexistence is preferable to witnessing earthly suffering.
The words — The phrase מִשֵּׁנֵיהֶם (miššēnêhem) literally means "more than both of them," pointing directly to the dead and living of the previous verse. The clause אֲשֶׁר עֲדֶן לֹא הָיָה (’ăšer ‘ăden lō’ hāyâ) translates to "who has not yet existed," establishing the subject that surpasses both groups.
The thread — The motif of unexperienced life or barrenness as preferable to suffering appears in Luke 23:29 and Matthew 24:19 during descriptions of coming tribulation. Ecclesiastes 6:3 extends the thought by noting that a long, child-filled life holds no value without contentment.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that unexperienced life avoids the corruption and futility observed under the sun. It asks the reader to confront the weight of witnessing evil without offering comfort or resolution.
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
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.
Cross-references
- Luke 23:29 Look, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed!’
- Ecclesiastes 6:3 A 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.
- Matthew 24:19 How miserable those days will be for pregnant and nursing mothers!
- Job 3:10 For that night did not shut the doors of the womb to hide the sorrow from my eyes.
- Job 3:22 who rejoice and greatly exult when they reach the grave?
- Job 10:18 Why then did You bring me from the womb? Oh, that I had died, and no eye had seen me!
- Psalms 55:6 I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.
- Ecclesiastes 2:17 So 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.
- Jeremiah 9:2 If 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 20:17 because he did not kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb forever enlarged.