IV.1.  And I returned and contemplated all the acts of oppression that are committed beneath the sun: Behold! Tears of the oppressed with none to comfort them, and their oppressors have the power - with none to comfort them.  After considering this I turned my eyes and attention to this, so that I saw the slanderers and those sustaining chicanery.  And look on those who, oppressed unjustly by more powerful men, are not able to find a comforter for their tears.  For this is only permitted in disasters and in protest at the ill will of the matter.  And wherever there is more distress and inconsolable suffering they see the slanderers as stronger in their difficulties.  And this is the cause: because they are not worthy of consolation.  He describes this idea more fully in the seventy-second psalm of David, and Jeremiah in his own book.

2/3.  So I consider more fortunate the dead, who have already died, than the living, who are still alive.  But better than either of them is he who has not yet been, and has never witnessed the evil that is committed under the sun.  In comparison with the difficulties, which trouble mortal men in this world, I had judged the dead to be happier than the living according to that which Job says in his argument regarding the dead: " there they rested with tired bodies, with those who had been in chains, now without cares, not hearing the voice of the expeller."[1]  But it is better for these two, for the living it seems and for the deceased, who has not yet been born.  For one man will suffer ill, another unclothed will escape it as if from a shipwreck.  Moreover he who has not yet been born is happier in that, because he has not yet experienced the ill of the world.  But he says this, not because he who has not yet been born, exists before he has been born, and he is happier in this, since he has not yet been weighed down by his body; but better to be sure is not existing, or not having a sense of wealth, than either being unhappy or living unhappily.  Just as the Lord speaks to Judas, referring to his coming anguish: "it was better for that man never to have been born"[2], since it would have been better for sure for him not to have existed, than to suffer eternal torture.  Some people in fact understand this passage in this way: they say they are better, who have died, than those who are living, it is permitted to them before they were sinners[3].  For until now the living were in battle and were held back as if closed in by the prison of the body; but those who have opposed death are already without cares and have stopped sinning.  Just like John, in which he was not greater in respect to the sons of women, he is less than him, who is the lowest in the realm of heaven and is freed from the burden of the body.  He does not know how to say like the apostle: "I am a wretched man, who will free me from the body of this death?"[4].  But he says he is better than those two, who has not yet been born, nor does not see the wickedness, by which men are oppressed in the world. For our souls mingle among the gods, before descending to these bodies and are blessed so long as the heavenly ones are held in Jerusalem and in the choir of angels.

4.  And I saw that all labour and skilful enterprise spring from man's rivalry with his neighbour.  This, too, is futility and a vexation of the spirit!  I turned my attention once again to other things and I saw the strength and honour of those men who were toiling, and I discovered the good of one man to be the evil of another, while the envious one is tortured by another's happiness, and the boastful lies open to trickery.  For what is more vain, what is for nothing like the spirit in this way, than for man to weep for misfortunes that are not his own, or to bemoan his own sins, or be envious of better men. 

5.  The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.  This is the man that is described as slow to comprehend in Proverbs[5], holding his chest in his hands.  For poverty, although he is a fast runner, catches up with him and he eats his own flesh because of the extent of his hunger, but this is said in exaggeration.  He is the sort of man who thinks that having one fist of corn and living idly and in a stupor is better than filling each hand by working.  But he sows everything so that he can show that he that both works and acquires possessions leaves himself open in the world to envy.  Conversely he that desires to live a simple life is oppressed by poverty and because of this both of these two is poor: while the one runs a risk on account of his wealth, the other is consumed by want because of his poverty.  Or indeed perhaps it is to be understood in this way: he who envies the happiness of another man is seized as if by the fury of the spirit, and takes envy into his lap, and nourishes it in his heart: thus it is he eats his soul and his flesh.  For as much as he sees that man whom he envies as happier, he himself more so wastes away and perishes, and little by little becomes more full of envy and jealousy.  Another way of reading this is: his hands are taken on many occasions to lead him to work, just as the passage which states, "the act of the Lord which is done in the hand of Haggai"[6], or of Ecclesiastes, or of his prophet, because he has done such work, that he appears to be worthy, in whose work is the speech of the Lord.  And the man, who corresponds to this man is David, "who leads my hands in battle"[7].  Therefore the fool embraces his hands, that is he draws them together and doesn't want to open them, and so does not eat the toil of his hands, which he does not have, but his flesh, living by the wisdom of his flesh and eating the toil of his flesh. 

6.  Better is one handful of pleasantness than two fistfuls of labour and vexation of the spirit.  It is better to have modest power, than great riches of sins.  And in Proverbs it says, "To receive a little through righteousness is better than gaining much by injustice."[8]  Justice rightly has rest, injustice toil.  And since a single number is always seen in a good context and a dual seen as wickedness, therefore one fist has rest, and two hands are full of toil. 

7/8.  Then I returned and contemplated futility beneath the sun: a lone and solitary man who has neither son nor brother, yet there is no end to his toil, nor is his eye ever sated with riches, nor does he ask himself, 'For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of goodness.'  This too is futility, indeed, it is a sorry task.  I turned to other people and I saw that they work more than is necessary and amass wealth by good and bad means and do not use it once accumulated; they have all things, brood over their riches, keep it for another, and do not enjoy their work.  Then at the end of their life they have neither son nor brother, nor close friend so that the pious work seems reserved for necessities only.  And so I discovered nothing more vain than that man, who collects riches, or to whom an ignorant man bequeaths them.  We are even able to understand this in a religious interpretation, and understand it as those, who write books and leave them to fastidious readers.  Some say that this passage from where it says "there is one, but there is not a second" is about the Saviour, because he came down to save the world alone and without any companion.  And although there are many sons of God, they are called his brothers by adoption, though not one remains worthy, who should be joined to him in this work.  There is no end to this work, for those carrying our faults and sins and suffering for us; and his eye will not be filled by riches, but always with those desiring our safety, and the more you see his sins, the more he encourages him to repent.

9/12.  Two are better than one, for they get a greater return for their labour.  For should they fall, one can raise the other; but woe to him who is alone when he falls and there is no one to raise him! Also, if two sleep together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?  Where one can be overpowered, two can resist attack; A three-ply cord is not easily severed!  After the misfortunes of loneliness in which he has been seized, and he who torments himself in acquiring wealth without a definite heir, now the subject of companionship is treated.  And it asks what good ther is in a tent of friends and what comfort there is in company, since one man's distress or domestic strife is lifted by another's help, (any man who has a faithful friend will sleep better all that night, than he who sleeps only with his wealth which he has amassed.  And if a stronger enemy rises up against one man, the weakness of one is sustained by the comfort of friends.  And just as two differ from one if they are joined in love, so the tent of three is stronger.  For even true charity, which has been violated by no envy increases as much in number as it grows in strength.  And this idea is conveyed in relatively few words.  But since previously we have placed the discussion of the intelligence of certain men before Christ, those things which are still left must be discussed by the same order.  It is better for two to be equal, than one.  For it is better for a man who lives alone to have Christ, than alone to leave himself vulnerable to ill-intentioned plots.  Since the reward of the tent is shown at once in the very usefulness of society.  For if one man fell, Christ would raise up his partner.  Woe indeed to him who collapses, he will not have Christ rising up in him.  For if one sleeps, that is, if he had been dissolved by death and had Christ with him, he will revive more quickly having been made warm and given life once again.  And if the devil, being stronger in his attack, should attack a man, the man will stand, and Christ will stand in place of this man, in place of his companion.  Not because virtue is weak (the virtue of Christ alone) against the devil, but because the decision of man is left free and for us, who are dependent, but virtue itself will become stronger through fighting.  And even if the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit should come, that friendship is not broken easily.  But although it is not broken easily, it will be broken nonetheless at some point.  And the cord from the apostle to Judas was threefold: but after the breaking of the bread Satan entered him and that cord was broken.  More precisely what he says above is, "and even if two are sleeping, then they will be warm: and how will one keep warm on his own?"  We can take an example from Elisha, because he is in a pact with a lad, and slept with him and warmed his body, and in this way revived the recovering boy.[9]  Unless therefore Christ sleeps with us and rests in death, we are not able to receive the heart of eternal life. 

13/16.  Better is a poor but wise youth, than an old and foolish king who no longer knows how to take care of himself; because from the prison-house he emerged to reign, while even in his reign he was born poor.  I saw all the living that wander beneath the sun throng to the succeeding youth that steps into his place.  There is no end to the entire nation, to all that was before them; similarly the ones that come later will not rejoice in him.  For this too is futility and a vexation of the spirit.     Symmachus translates this passage in this way: "better a poor man who has wisdom, than an old and foolish king who does not know to beware of change".  For the one leaves the body to reign in heaven, and the other indeed, although he had been born a king, is restricted by poverty.  I saw all men living, who grow up under the sun in propitious adolescence, which increases in them.  Each and every nation that was before is unending, and those that come after do not rejoice in the previous.  But this too is empty and a vexation of the spirit.  My Hebrew tutor, whose teachings I often refer to, bore witness while he was reading Ecclesiastes with me, that Bar Akiba wrote these things above the present passage, and he is greatly admired by other scholars: better is the inner part of man, which arises in us after the fourteenth year of puberty, than the outer, physical man, who is born from his mother's womb, and he does not know how to abstain from vice because it comes to this that he rules over his vices from the house of chains, that is from his mother's womb.  For he is made poor because of his power and by carrying out all wicked deeds.  I saw those men, who lived as those former men, and were changed afterwards into that second man, in him that has been born in place of the former.  And I understood that all men sinned in that prior manhood, before the second is born, when they become two men.  But once these men have changed for the better, and after the learning of philosophers, they leave the left path and hurry towards the right, and they follow the second man, that is the newest man, and do not rejoice in him that is the former.  The apostle agrees with these two types of men[10] and Leviticus also mentioned them: "Man, man"[11] who desired this or that.  That saintly man Gregorius Pontus the bishop, to whom Origen preached, understands the passage in the following way in his Metaphrasis of Ecclesiastes: "I however prefer a youth who is poor yet is growing wise, to an old king who is foolish, to whom it never occurs that it is possible for someone from those whom he has conquered, will leave the body to reign in heaven; and then he destroys himself from his unjust power.  For it happens though that those who were growing wise at the time of youth are without sadness; but that they changed before the time of becoming an old king.  For those that have been born afterwards, since they do not know the wickedness that has gone before, they are not able to praise youth, which arises afterwards, and are led astray by perverse ideas and by the force of the opposing arguments."[12]  Laodicenus has asserted that great matters are expressed in this short passage, and he wrote here in his accustomed fashion: "Ecclesiastes now speaks about the change of good men into wicked, expressing the foolish man as he who tries, and who not thinking of the future, enjoys the transient and failing things as if they are great and perpetual.  And after the many things which usually happen (or change) to men in their life, he asserts something of a general opinion of death, since the great number perishes and little by little is consumed and pass across, with each one leaving the other in his place, and another's successor dying."[13]  Origines and Victorinus[14] did not think very differently on this matter.  After the general statement that reveals to all that the poor yet wise youth is better than an old king who is foolish, and that it often happens that the lad leaves the prison of the king because of his wisdom, and commands in place of a cruel dictator, and as a foolish king loses all his power, which he had obtained.  They saw this passage in relation to Christ and the devil, because they wished to view the poor and wise boy as Christ.  The poor boy is the same as that one in "it is great for you to be called my boy"[15], but the poor man, since he has been made poor[16], when once he was rich and wise, because "he was proficient in age and wisdom and thankful to God and men."[17]  That man is born in the reign of an old man and therefore he says, "if this was my rule in the world, that my servants struggle on my behalf so that I am not handed over to the Jews.  But now it is not my rule."[18]  So in the reign of that foolish old man who displays all the rule of the whole world and his glory, the most excellent boy comes from the house of chains, about which Jeremiah speaks in Lamentations, saying, "so that he lowers to the feet of that man all those who have been conquered in the world."[19]  And that boy goes on to rule and goes away to a far off region, and as king after some time is turned against those, who do not want to rule.  So with some insight Ecclesiastes saw that all men who are alive and who are able to be part of youth, say, "I am life"[20], having left behind them that old foolish king, to follow Christ.  At the same time the two nations of Israel are to be understood here.  The first, which was before the arrival of the Lord, and the next, which will support the Antichrist in place of Christ, for the first is not deep down despondent, since the first church was formed from Jews and the apostles; and in the end the Jews, who will support the Antichrist, will not rejoice in Christ.

17.  Guard your foot when you go to the House of God; better to draw near and hearken than to offer the sacrifices of fools, for they do not consider that they do evil.  He gives some general precepts for life, and does not want to offend us, who go to church.  Since it is praiseworthy in his view, not just to enter the House of God, but to enter without offence.  And if it was intended for all who are in the church of God to hear this passage, he would never have added, "and approach so that you might hear".  But then it was only Moses who approached near to God to hear[21], the other men were not allowed.  For the foolish commit sins, not knowing that there is a remedy; they think that they can satisfy God with the offering of gifts, and do not know that this is also evil and a sin; for they want to make correction for what they have done, not with obedience and good work, but with gifts and sacrifice.  What others have said elsewhere agrees with this too: "obedience above sacrifice"[22].  And "I want pity and not sacrifice".[23]