Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
THE SURROUNDING PASSAGE
Ecclesiastes 4:4 in context
Ecclesiastes 4:1–7
1
Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.
2
Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.
3
Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
4
Selected verse
Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
5
The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.
6
Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind.
7
Then I returned and saw vanity under the sun.
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