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¶ So I returned and considered all the violence that is done under the sun and behold the tears of such as are oppressed, and they have no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but the oppressed had no comforter.

Therefore I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive.

And I thought that better is he than both of them who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil works that are done under the sun.

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On the Abuse of Authority

Next I turned to consider all kinds of oppression that exists on earth.

Look at the tears of the oppressed—
    there is no one to comfort them.
Power is on the side of their oppressors;
    so they have no comforters.

So I commended the dead who had already died as being happier than the living who are still alive. Better than both of them is someone who has not yet been born,[a] because he hasn’t experienced evil on earth.

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Footnotes

  1. Ecclesiastes 4:3 The Heb. lacks born