Ecclesiastes 4:1-3

² Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead, more than the living who are still alive.

³ Yet, better than both is he who has never existed, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

The confusion, ignorance, and misery which result from banishing God from the world is in this chapter made more apparent by the absence of the Divine Name. It does not once appear .

“I returned and saw” (v.1) means I resumed my investigation; and has special reference to Ecclesiastes 3:16.

“I praised” (v.2) means I esteemed happy. The argument is that men suffer so much from the injustice of governments that it were better to be dead or never to have been born.

The repetition of the statement “they had no comforter” (v.1) emphasizes the tender pity of God for the oppressed. If there be no God, and no future life, then indeed it would be better never to have been born; and when knowledge is limited to what takes place “under the sun” (v.1) then is the congratulation of verses 2 and 3 sound philosophy. — Williams, page 442.