Verse 2

Wherefore I praised the dead that have been long dead more than the living that are yet alive;

Referenced Verses

• Eccl 2:17 : 17 So I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all is vanity and a striving after wind.
• Eccl 9:4-6 : 4 For to him that is joined with all the living there is hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. 5 For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not anything, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten. 6 As well their love, as their hatred and their envy, is perished long ago; neither have they any more a portion for ever in anything that is done under the sun.
• Job 3:11-26 : 11 Why died I not from the womb? Why did I not give up the ghost when my mother bare me? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breast, that I should suck? 13 For now should I have lain down and been quiet; I should have slept; then had I been at rest, 14 With kings and counsellors of the earth, Who built up waste places for themselves; 15 Or with princes that had gold, Who filled their houses with silver: 16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I had not been, As infants that never saw light. 17 There the wicked cease from troubling; And there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners are at ease together; They hear not the voice of the taskmaster. 19 The small and the great are there: And the servant is free from his master. 20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery, And life unto the bitter in soul; 21 Who long for death, but it cometh not, And dig for it more than for hid treasures; 22 Who rejoice exceedingly, And are glad, when they can find the grave? 23 [ Why is light given] to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in? 24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, And my groanings are poured out like water. 25 For the thing which I fear cometh upon me, And that which I am afraid of cometh unto me. 26 I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; But trouble cometh.