Bible verse

Ecclesiastes 4:2

So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

Ecclesiastes 4:2 · BSB

Ecclesiastes 4:2 in context

The verses around it, from Ecclesiastes 4.

1 Again I looked, and I considered all the oppression taking place under the sun. I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter; the power lay in the hands of their oppressors, and there was no comforter.

2 So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

3 But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.

4 I saw that all labor and success spring from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

5 The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.

6 Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and pursuit of the wind.

Read all of Ecclesiastes 4

Ecclesiastes 4:2 in other translations

KJV

Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.

ASV

Wherefore I praised the dead that have been long dead more than the living that are yet alive;

ERV

Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive;

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Scripture quotations are from the Berean Standard Bible, which is free of copyright restrictions for use on websites. Read the full Bible on Great Faith.