Home Master Index
←Prev   Ecclesiates 4 as rendered by/in  Next→ 


4:1  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.
4:2  So I concluded that the dead are better off than the living.
4:3  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.
4:4  Then I observed that most people are motivated to success because they envy their neighbors. But this, too, is meaningless--like chasing the wind.
4:5  "Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin."
4:6  And yet, "Better to have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with hard work and chasing the wind."
4:7  I observed yet another example of something meaningless under the sun.
4:8  This is the case of a man who is all alone, without a child or a brother, yet who works hard to gain as much wealth as he can. But then he asks himself, "Who am I working for? Why am I giving up so much pleasure now?" It is all so meaningless and depressing.
4:9  Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.
4:10  If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
4:11  Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone?
4:12  A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.
4:13  It is better to be a poor but wise youth than an old and foolish king who refuses all advice.
4:14  Such a youth could rise from poverty and succeed. He might even become king, though he has been in prison.
4:15  But then everyone rushes to the side of yet another youth who replaces him.
4:16  Endless crowds stand around him, but then another generation grows up and rejects him, too. So it is all meaningless--like chasing the wind.