Ecclesiastes 4:1

1. The writer now looks upon the suffering which arises from “man’s inhumanity to man.” The royal writer, if such he be, does not confine his survey of the oppressions practiced by men to his own kingdom alone. He surveys all the oppressions under the sun, whether in his own kingdom, in neighboring nations, or in universal history. He states not merely what he saw but what he considered. I returned, and considered, is equivalent to, again I saw, implying merely a new line or object of observation. In the Hebrew the same word occurs twice. Our version renders it, oppressions and oppressed. Better, oppressed, each time: all the oppressed who are made such under the sun; the latter part serving to hold the attention longer. The down-trodden classes, like the French peasantry until the Revolution, the English agricultural labourers, the former American slaves, and very many other examples, illustrate this observation.