Ecclesiastes 4:2
English Standard Version
2 And I (A)thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive.
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Ecclesiastes 2:17
English Standard Version
17 So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for (A)all is vanity and a striving after wind.
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Job 3:11-26
English Standard Version
11 “Why (A)did I not die at birth,
come out from the womb and expire?
12 Why did (B)the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
13 For then I would have lain down and been quiet;
I would have slept; then I would have been at rest,
14 with kings and counselors of the earth
who (C)rebuilt ruins for themselves,
15 or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16 Or why was I not as a hidden (D)stillborn child,
as infants who never see the light?
17 There the wicked cease from troubling,
and there the weary are at (E)rest.
18 There the prisoners are at ease together;
they hear not the voice of (F)the taskmaster.
19 The small and the great are there,
and the slave is free from his master.
20 “Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to (G)the bitter in soul,
21 who (H)long for death, but it comes not,
and dig for it more than for (I)hidden treasures,
22 who rejoice exceedingly
and are glad when they find the grave?
23 Why is light given to a man whose (J)way is hidden,
whom God has (K)hedged in?
24 For my sighing comes (L)instead of[a] my bread,
and my (M)groanings are poured out like water.
25 (N)For the thing that I fear comes upon me,
and what I dread befalls me.
26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
Footnotes
- Job 3:24 Or like; Hebrew before
Ecclesiastes 9:4-6
English Standard Version
4 But he who is joined with all the living has hope, for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they will die, but (A)the dead know nothing, and they have no more reward, for (B)the memory of them is forgotten. 6 Their love and their hate and their envy have already perished, and forever they have no more share in all that is done under the sun.
Read full chapterThe ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2025.
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