"Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive" (4:2). Is the Preacher saying it is better to be dead?

He tells what he did after what he saw. 4:1 ends, "but they had no comforter" (4:1), and 4:2 begins with Therefore. Better than the dead and the living, he says, is "him who has not yet been" (4:3), and he gives his reason in the same verse: "who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun" (4:3). He weighs what is seen under the sun. He doesn't say he wishes to die, he doesn't tell anyone to, and he says nothing here of what the dead know. The same Preacher says later, "For to him who is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion" (9:4), and "Truly the light is sweet, and it is a pleasant thing for the eyes to see the sun" (11:7). The book keeps these sayings beside each other, and it ends, "Fear God and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man" (12:13). These notes add no teaching of their own about death, and they don't make 4:2-3 the book's last word. If these verses touch anyone's own pain, make room to talk, and help them find someone they trust to talk to further, such as a pastor or a counselor.