Ecclesiastes 4 Bible study: Two are better than one

The chapter opens, "Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun" (4:1). The Preacher tells what he saw: "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" (4:1). Here is what almost everyone misses: he says they had no comforter twice in one verse, and the second time closes the verse. In Hebrew comforter is menachem, a form of the verb nacham (tap comforter), and this verse is the only place Ecclesiastes has that verb. Oppressions and those who were oppressed are one Hebrew word, and the notes on Job 35 look at it; oppressors is the verb it comes from (tap oppressors). Then comes the hardest thing he says in the chapter: "Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive" (4:2) (tap praised). Better than both, he says, is "him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun" (4:3). The reason he gives is what is seen under the sun. He doesn't say he wishes to die, and he doesn't tell anyone else to; the honest question below looks at these verses.

נָחַםnachamsay na-KHAM

Brown-Driver-Briggs gives the verb, in the form of this verse, as "comfort, console". Strong's: "to pity, console". Comforter is menachem, a form of this verb. "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" (4:1). Both times the Hebrew is ein ... menachem, there is no comforter, and these two are the only times Ecclesiastes has the verb. Elsewhere the same verb is in "Comfort, comfort my people" (Isaiah 40:1), and in Jacob's grief: "All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted" (Genesis 37:35). Lamentations 1 has ein with menachem four times (see the go-deeper Tears, and no one to comfort).