Ecc 4:1-3 | Clarke | STEP | The vanity of life is increased by oppression, ; by envy, ; by idleness, . The misery of a solitary life, and the advantages of society, . A poor and wise child; better than an old and foolish king, . The uncertainty of popular favor, . Verse 1 Considered all the oppressions - עשקים ashukim signifies any kind of injury which a man can receive in his person, his property, or his good fame. On the side of their oppressors there was power - And, therefore, neither protection nor comfort for the oppressed.

Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

Introduction

The vanity of life is increased by oppression, Ecc 4:1-3; by envy, Ecc 4:4; by idleness, Ecc 4:5. The misery of a solitary life, and the advantages of society, Ecc 4:6-12. A poor and wise child; better than an old and foolish king, Ecc 4:13. The uncertainty of popular favor, Ecc 4:14-16.

Verse 1

Considered all the oppressions - עשקים ashukim signifies any kind of injury which a man can receive in his person, his property, or his good fame.

On the side of their oppressors there was power - And, therefore, neither protection nor comfort for the oppressed. Verse 2

Wherefore I praised the dead - I considered those happy who had escaped from the pilgrimage of life to the place where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. 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.