Ecclesiastes 4:2 - Exposition

In view of these patent wrongs Koheleth loses all enjoyment of life. Wherefore (and) I praised the dead which are already dead ; or, who died long ago , and thus have escaped the miseries which they would have had to endure. It must, indeed, have been a bitter experience which elicited such an avowal. To die and be forgotten an Oriental would look upon as the most calamitous of destinies. More than the living which are yet alive. For these have before them the prospect of a long endurance of oppression and suffering (comp. Ecclesiastes 7:1 ; Job 3:13 , etc.). The Greek gnome says—

κρεῖσσον τὸ μὴ ζῇν ἐστὶν ἢ ζῇν ἀθλίως

"Better to die than lead a wretched life."

The Septuagint version is scarcely a rendering of our present text: "Above the living, as many as are living until now."