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Ecclesiastes 4

Eccl. 4:3 KJV (With Strong’s)

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3
Yeah, better
towb (Hebrew #2896)
good (as an adjective) in the widest sense; used likewise as a noun, both in the masculine and the feminine, the singular and the plural (good, a good or good thing, a good man or woman; the good, goods or good things, good men or women), also as an adverb (well)
KJV usage: beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, at ease, X fair (word), (be in) favour, fine, glad, good (deed, -lier, -liest, -ly, -ness, -s), graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, liketh (best), loving, merry, X most, pleasant, + pleaseth, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth, welfare, (be) well ((-favoured)).
Pronounce: tobe
Origin: from 2895
is he than both
shnayim (Hebrew #8147)
feminine shttayim {shet-tah'-yim}; two; also (as ordinal) twofold
KJV usage: both, couple, double, second, twain, + twelfth, + twelve, + twenty (sixscore) thousand, twice, two.
Pronounce: shen-ah'-yim
Origin: dual of 8145
they, which hath not yet
`aden (Hebrew #5728)
from 5704 and 2004; till now
KJV usage: yet.
Pronounce: ad-en'
Origin: or radennah {ad-en'-naw}
been, who hath not seen
ra'ah (Hebrew #7200)
to see, literally or figuratively (in numerous applications, direct and implied, transitive, intransitive and causative)
KJV usage: advise self, appear, approve, behold, X certainly, consider, discern, (make to) enjoy, have experience, gaze, take heed, X indeed, X joyfully, lo, look (on, one another, one on another, one upon another, out, up, upon), mark, meet, X be near, perceive, present, provide, regard, (have) respect, (fore-, cause to, let) see(-r, -m, one another), shew (self), X sight of others, (e-)spy, stare, X surely, X think, view, visions.
Pronounce: raw-aw'
Origin: a primitive root
the evil
ra` (Hebrew #7451)
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)
KJV usage: adversity, affliction, bad, calamity, + displease(-ure), distress, evil((- favouredness), man, thing), + exceedingly, X great, grief(-vous), harm, heavy, hurt(-ful), ill (favoured), + mark, mischief(-vous), misery, naught(-ty), noisome, + not please, sad(-ly), sore, sorrow, trouble, vex, wicked(-ly, -ness, one), worse(-st), wretchedness, wrong. (Incl. feminine raaah; as adjective or noun.).
Pronounce: rah
Origin: from 7489
work
ma`aseh (Hebrew #4639)
an action (good or bad); generally, a transaction; abstractly, activity; by implication, a product (specifically, a poem) or (generally) property
KJV usage: act, art, + bakemeat, business, deed, do(-ing), labor, thing made, ware of making, occupation, thing offered, operation, possession, X well, ((handy-, needle-, net-))work(ing, - manship), wrought.
Pronounce: mah-as-eh'
Origin: from 6213
that is done
`asah (Hebrew #6213)
to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest application (as follows)
KJV usage: accomplish, advance, appoint, apt, be at, become, bear, bestow, bring forth, bruise, be busy, X certainly, have the charge of, commit, deal (with), deck, + displease, do, (ready) dress(-ed), (put in) execute(-ion), exercise, fashion, + feast, (fight-)ing man, + finish, fit, fly, follow, fulfill, furnish, gather, get, go about, govern, grant, great, + hinder, hold ((a feast)), X indeed, + be industrious, + journey, keep, labour, maintain, make, be meet, observe, be occupied, offer, + officer, pare, bring (come) to pass, perform, pracise, prepare, procure, provide, put, requite, X sacrifice, serve, set, shew, X sin, spend, X surely, take, X thoroughly, trim, X very, + vex, be (warr-)ior, work(-man), yield, use.
Pronounce: aw-saw'
Origin: a primitive root
under the sun
shemesh (Hebrew #8121)
the sun; by implication, the east; figuratively, a ray, i.e. (arch.) a notched battlement
KJV usage: + east side(-ward), sun ((rising)), + west(-ward), window. See also 1053.
Pronounce: sheh'-mesh
Origin: from an unused root meaning to be brilliant
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Eccl. 6:3• 3If a man beget a hundred sons, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and also he have no burial, I say an untimely birth is better than he. (Eccl. 6:3)
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Job 3:11• 11Wherefore did I not die from the womb,--come forth from the belly and expire? (Job 3:11)
,etc.

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Sun

Cross References

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Ministry on This Verse

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better.
Eccl. 6:3‑5• 3If a man beget a hundred sons, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, but his soul be not filled with good, and also he have no burial, I say an untimely birth is better than he.
 4For it cometh in vanity, and departeth in darkness, and its name is covered with darkness;
 5moreover it hath not seen nor known the sun: this hath rest rather than the other. (Eccl. 6:3‑5)
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Job 3:10‑16• 10Because it shut not up the doors of the womb that bore me, and hid not trouble from mine eyes.
 11Wherefore did I not die from the womb,--come forth from the belly and expire?
 12Why did the knees meet me? and wherefore the breasts, that I should suck?
 13For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept: then had I been at rest,
 14With kings and counsellors of the earth, who build desolate places for themselves,
 15Or with princes who had gold, who filled their houses with silver;
 16Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants that have not seen the light. (Job 3:10‑16)
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Job 10:18‑19• 18And wherefore didst thou bring me forth out of the womb? I had expired, and no eye had seen me.
 19I should be as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. (Job 10:18‑19)
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Jer. 20:17‑18• 17because he slew me not from the womb. Or would that my mother had been my grave, and her womb always great with me!
 18Wherefore came I forth from the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame? (Jer. 20:17‑18)
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Matt. 24:19• 19But woe to those that are with child, and those that give suck in those days. (Matt. 24:19)
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Luke 23:29• 29for behold, days are coming in which they will say, Blessed are the barren, and wombs that have not borne, and breasts that have not given suck. (Luke 23:29)
who.
Eccl. 1:14• 14I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and pursuit of the wind. (Eccl. 1:14)
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Eccl. 2:17• 17And I hated life; for the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all is vanity and pursuit of the wind. (Eccl. 2:17)
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Psa. 55:6‑11• 6And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away, and be at rest;
 7Behold, I would flee afar off, I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah;
 8I would hasten my escape from the stormy wind, from the tempest.
 9Swallow them up, Lord; divide their tongue: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.
 10Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof; and iniquity and mischief are in the midst of it.
 11Perversities are in the midst thereof; and oppression and deceit depart not from its streets. (Psa. 55:6‑11)
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Jer. 9:2‑3• 2Oh that I had in the wilderness a traveller's lodging-place, that I might leave my people, and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
 3And they bend their tongue, their bow of falsehood, and not for fidelity are they valiant in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith Jehovah. (Jer. 9:2‑3)
• {Contrast Phil. 1} that other man was also in the same scene exactly, who said, too, that it was certainly “far better” to be out of it; but― precious contrast! that was because of the loveliness and sweet attraction of One known outside of it; whilst the very needs of others in the scene―those “tears,” in a way, of which the wise man speaks, and which he knew no way of stopping―alone kept him in it, and made him consent to stay. (“Ecclesiastes 4” by F.C. Jennings)

J. N. Darby Translation

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and more fortunateh than both is he who hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

JND Translation Notes

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Or "better."