Ecclesiastes Chapter 4 verse 2 Holy Bible
Wherefore I praised the dead that have been long dead more than the living that are yet alive;
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So my praise was for the dead who have gone to their death, more than for the living who still have life.
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Then I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive;
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Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.
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Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.
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And I am praising the dead who have already died above the living who are yet alive.
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 2. - 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 η} 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."
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(2) I praised the dead.--Job 3:11; Exodus 32:32; 1Kings 19:4; Jeremiah 20:14; Jonah 4:3. The word which is translated "yet" in this verse belongs to later Hebrew, and does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament,
