The Dreadfulness of Oppression (Ecclesiastes 4:1-3).
Having been faced up to the injustice in the world, and especially the injustice in its courts of justice, the Preacher now turns to consider oppression in general and is dismayed at the unfairness of it all.
‘Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter, and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter.'
The next thing that he considers, which increases his pessimism, is the oppression of men by those in authority or who have power (compare Ecclesiastes 3:16-17; Job 35:9; Amos 3:9). He sees a world full of such oppression, and the tears of the oppressed, and the fact that they are without someone to assist them. This latter fact so moves him that he repeats it twice, firstly as a sad fact, and then in contrast with the oppressors. The oppressors have authority and power, the oppressed have no comforter.
But in contrast to Ecclesiastes 3:16-17, where such behaviour led to judgment for the oppressors and justice for the oppressed, here he is concerned only with the earthly situation of the oppressed. Indeed it is clear that he does not feel that the oppressed are going to obtain justice in this life. The dead are better off than they. So this directly contrasts with Ecclesiastes 3:17 if we see that as referring to this life. This might serve to confirm that Ecclesiastes 12:14 sees judgment as taking place after death. Otherwise this does not make sense.
‘Wherefore I congratulated the dead, who are already dead, more than the living. Yes better than both, is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.'
What he saw so upset him that he congratulated those who had already died and so escaped the oppression. It was better for such to be dead rather than alive. But then he takes it a step further. It was even better for the one who has not been born and therefore has not had to experience the oppression at all, and has not had to observe it. Perhaps he was also thinking temporarily that it would in fact have been better for him not to have been born at all, a further reason for recognising the meaninglessness of life.