(Ecclesiastes 4:1-3)

[Quantrill]

My focus here centers mainly on (Ecc. 4:2). But, verses (1,3) help give understanding to it.

(Ecc. 4:2) is worded in a strange way, in my opinion. The writer could have just said, "I praised the dead more than the living." And that is the way it is usually interpreted.

So why didn't he just say it that way? Is there some other truth revealed here?

Quantrill

 

[Alofa Atu]

My focus here centers mainly on (Ecc. 4:2). But, verses (1,3) help give understanding to it.

(Ecc. 4:2) is worded in a strange way, in my opinion. The writer could have just said, "I praised the dead more than the living." And that is the way it is usually interpreted.

So why didn't he just say it that way? Is there some other truth revealed here?

Quantrill

Sure, there are those 'dead' which are physically dead, and there are those living walking breathing 'dead', the zombies of unrighteousness, dead in trespasses and in sin, whose mouths are open graves, etc:

Ecc 4:2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.​

Thus, he is speaking about the physically dead (deceased, as a person who is dead), who had their life already, and then afterward another group is those who have never even been alive, or seen the light of life (birth):

Ecc 4:3 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.​

 

[Deacon]

Even in the midst of a pandemic, we live in good and easy times.
We worship in ease and entertainment.
Things haven’t always been so easy.

Other prophets have expressed similar ideas.

“For these things I weep;
My eyes run down with water;
Because far from me is a comforter,
One who restores my soul.
My children are desolate
Because the enemy has prevailed.”
Lamentations 1:16​

I enjoy the New Living Translation when reading Ecclesiastes, it’s fresher, more vibrant, it brings out the meaning of the passage rather than focusing on the form (the form is something I usually concentrate on) ...and so it’s more depressing.

Again, I observed all the oppression that takes place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, with no one to comfort them. The oppressors have great power, and their victims are helpless. 2 So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living. 3 But most fortunate of all are those who are not yet born. For they have not seen all the evil that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 4:1–3 (New Living Translation)​

The author is writing about the social injustice of his time, something that should resonate with the culture of today.

He’s saying:

It’s better to be dead than to be suffering,
Even more, it’s better to be aborted than born.​

Sort of sums up our culture today.

Praise God we have a Comforter, one we can trust in times of darkness.
This is the message we have to share in today’s culture.

Don’t look to politics for salvation, it will disappoint you.

Rob

 

[Quantrill]

Sure, there are those 'dead' which are physically dead, and there are those living walking breathing 'dead', the zombies of unrighteousness, dead in trespasses and in sin, whose mouths are open graves, etc:

Ecc 4:2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.​

Thus, he is speaking about the physically dead (deceased, as a person who is dead), who had their life already, and then afterward another group is those who have never even been alive, or seen the light of life (birth):

Ecc 4:3 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.​

And that 'another group' you speak of are called the 'living'. Even though they are not physically alive.

In other words, the writer is making a distinction here between the living and the dead. But that distinction is not determined by ones physical birth. It is determined by ones spirit, or relationship to God. And that appears, to me, to exist prior to ones birth.

The dead which are already dead. (Ecc. 4:2) In other words, there are those who are dead in God's eyes, though they haven't been born yet.

The living which are yet alive. (Ecc. 4:2) In other words, there are those who are living in God's eyes, though they haven't been born yet.

Would that not help understand (Matt. 8:22)? "But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead."

Quantrill