Ecclesiastes 4:1

KJV1611 – Modern English

So I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun: 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.

Additional Resources

Other Translations

  • Linguistic Bible Translation from Source Texts

    Again I looked and saw all the oppression that is done under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter. Power was on the side of their oppressors, and they had no comforter.

  • King James Version 1769 (Standard Version)

    So I returned, and considered 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.

  • American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

    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.

  • King James Version with Strong's Numbers

    So I returned, and considered 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.

  • Coverdale Bible (1535)

    So I turned me, and considered all the violent wronge that is done vnder the Sonne: and beholde, the teares of soch as were oppressed, and there was no man to comforte them, or that wolde delyuer and defende them from the violence of their oppressours.

  • Geneva Bible (1560)

    So I turned and considered all the oppressions that are wrought vnder the sunne, and beholde the teares of the oppressed, and none comforteth them: and lo, the strength is of the hand of them that oppresse them, & none comforteth them.

  • Bishops' Bible (1568)

    So I turned me, and considered all the violent wrong that is done vnder the sunne: and beholde the teares of such as were oppressed, and there was no man to comfort them, or that woulde deliuer and defende them from the violence of their oppressours.

  • Authorized King James Version (1611)

    ¶ So I returned, and considered 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.

  • Webster's Bible (1833)

    Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: 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.

  • Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

    And I have turned, and I see all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and lo, the tear of the oppressed, and they have no comforter; and at the hand of their oppressors `is' power, and they have no comforter.

  • American Standard Version (1901)

    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.

  • American Standard Version (1901)

    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.

  • Bible in Basic English (1941)

    And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter.

  • World English Bible (2000)

    Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: 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.

  • NET Bible® (New English Translation)

    Evil Oppression on Earth So I again considered all the oppression that continually occurs on earth. This is what I saw: The oppressed were in tears, but no one was comforting them; no one delivers them from the power of their oppressors.

Referenced Verses

  • Eccl 3:16 : 16 Moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
  • Eccl 5:8 : 8 If you see the oppression of the poor and the violent perversion of judgment and justice in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for He who is higher than the highest regards, and there are higher than they.
  • Isa 5:7 : 7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plant: and he looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but behold, a cry.
  • Lam 1:2 : 2 She weeps bitterly in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks: among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: all her friends have dealt treacherously with her, they have become her enemies.
  • Lam 1:9 : 9 Her filthiness is in her skirts; she does not remember her last end; therefore she came down astonishingly: she had no comforter. O LORD, behold my affliction, for the enemy has magnified himself.
  • Mal 2:13 : 13 And this you have done again, covering the altar of the LORD with tears, with weeping and crying out, so much that he regards not the offering any more, nor receives it with good will at your hand.
  • Mal 3:5 : 5 And I will come near to you for judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those who oppress the laborer in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who turn aside the stranger from his right, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.
  • Mal 3:18 : 18 Then shall you return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
  • Matt 26:56 : 56 But all this was done, that the Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.
  • 2 Tim 4:16-17 : 16 At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. I pray that it may not be held against them. 17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be fully preached through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.
  • Jas 5:4 : 4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts.
  • Isa 51:23 : 23 But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you; who have said to your soul, 'Bow down, that we may go over:' and you have laid your body like the ground, and like the street, for those who went over.'
  • Isa 59:7 : 7 Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; devastation and destruction are in their paths.
  • Isa 59:13-15 : 13 In transgressing and lying against the Lord, and departing from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. 14 And judgment is turned backward, and justice stands far off: for truth has fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. 15 Yes, truth fails; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.
  • Eccl 7:7 : 7 Surely oppression makes a wise man mad, and a bribe destroys the heart.
  • Exod 1:13-14 : 13 And the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor: 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, which they made them serve, was with rigor.
  • Exod 1:16 : 16 And he said, When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools; if it is a son, then you shall kill him: but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.
  • Exod 1:22 : 22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.
  • Exod 2:23-24 : 23 Now it happened, in the process of time, that the king of Egypt died. The children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. 24 And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
  • Exod 5:16-19 : 16 There is no straw given to your servants, and they say to us, Make bricks: and behold, your servants are beaten; but the fault is in your own people. 17 But he said, You are idle, you are idle: therefore you say, Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord. 18 Go therefore now, and work; for no straw shall be given you, yet you shall deliver the quota of bricks. 19 And the officers of the children of Israel realized they were in trouble when it was said, You shall not diminish anything from your bricks of your daily task.
  • Deut 28:33 : 33 The fruit of your land, and all your labors, shall a nation which you know not eat up; and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always:
  • Deut 28:48 : 48 Therefore you shall serve your enemies which the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon your neck, until he has destroyed you.
  • Judg 4:3 : 3 And the children of Israel cried to the LORD, for Sisera had nine hundred chariots of iron, and for twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.
  • Judg 10:7-8 : 7 And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the children of Ammon. 8 And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel: for eighteen years, all the children of Israel that were on the other side of Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead.
  • Neh 5:1-5 : 1 And there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. 2 For there were those who said, We, our sons, and our daughters are many: therefore we need to take grain for them, that we may eat and live. 3 Others said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses to buy grain because of the famine. 4 There were also those who said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax, against our lands and vineyards. 5 Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and indeed, we bring into bondage our sons and daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are already in bondage; nor is it in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.
  • Job 6:29 : 29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yes, return again, my righteousness is in it.
  • Job 16:4 : 4 I too could speak as you do; if your soul were in my soul's place, I could heap up words against you and shake my head at you.
  • Job 19:21-22 : 21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O you my friends, for the hand of God has touched me. 22 Why do you persecute me as God does, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
  • Job 24:7-9 : 7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, so they have no covering in the cold. 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for lack of shelter. 9 They snatch the fatherless from the breast and take a pledge from the poor. 10 They make him go naked without clothing and take away the sheaf from the hungry; 11 They make oil within their walls and tread their winepresses, and still they thirst. 12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out, yet God does not charge them with folly.
  • Job 35:9 : 9 Because of the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed cry: they cry out by reason of the power of the mighty.
  • Ps 10:9-9 : 9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; he lies in wait to catch the poor; he catches the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 He crouches and humbles himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
  • Ps 12:5 : 5 For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, says the LORD; I will set him in safety from him who puffs at him.
  • Ps 42:3 : 3 My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, Where is your God?
  • Ps 42:9 : 9 I will say to God my rock, Why have You forgotten me? why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?
  • Ps 69:20 : 20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
  • Ps 80:5 : 5 You feed them with the bread of tears and give them tears to drink in great measure.
  • Ps 102:8-9 : 8 My enemies reproach me all day long; those who are mad against me are sworn against me. 9 For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with weeping,
  • Ps 142:4 : 4 I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no one who would know me; refuge failed me; no one cared for my soul.
  • Prov 19:7 : 7 All the brethren of the poor hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him? He pursues them with words, yet they are wanting to him.
  • Prov 28:3 : 3 A poor man who oppresses the poor is like a sweeping rain that leaves no food.
  • Prov 28:15-16 : 15 As a roaring lion and a raging bear, so is a wicked ruler over poor people. 16 The prince who lacks understanding is also a great oppressor, but he who hates covetousness shall prolong his days.

Similar Verses (AI)

These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.

  • Eccl 4:7-8
    2 verses
    79%

    7Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.

    8There is one alone, without a second; yes, he has neither child nor brother, yet there is no end to all his labor, nor is his eye satisfied with riches, nor does he ask, 'For whom do I labor and deprive my soul of good?' This is also vanity, yes, it is a grievous toil.

  • Eccl 8:9-10
    2 verses
    77%

    9All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man rules over another to his own harm.

    10Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had done so. This also is vanity.

  • Eccl 4:2-4
    3 verses
    75%

    2Therefore I praised the dead who are already dead more than the living who are yet alive.

    3Yes, better is he than both, who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

    4Again, I considered all the toil and every right work, that for this a man is envied by his neighbor. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

  • Eccl 2:10-12
    3 verses
    75%

    10And whatever my eyes desired, I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor; and this was my reward from all my labor.

    11Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done and on the labor I had toiled to do; and behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

    12I turned to consider wisdom, madness, and folly. For what can the man do who comes after the king? Only what has already been done.

  • Eccl 1:12-14
    3 verses
    74%

    12I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem.

    13And I set my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this difficult task God has given to the children of man to be engaged with.

    14I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and indeed, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

  • Eccl 4:15-16
    2 verses
    74%

    15I considered all the living who walk under the sun, with the second child who shall stand up in his place.

    16There is no end of all the people, even of all who have been before them; they also that come after will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

  • Eccl 2:19-23
    5 verses
    73%

    19And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will rule over all my labor in which I have labored and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

    20Therefore I turned my heart to despair over all the labor which I had done under the sun.

    21For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, knowledge, and skill. Yet he must leave his inheritance to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

    22For what has man from all his labor, and of the striving of his heart with which he has labored under the sun?

    23For all his days are sorrowful, and his work is burdensome; even at night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

  • Eccl 6:1
    73%

    1There is an evil I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:

  • Eccl 3:16
    73%

    16Moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.

  • Job 30:25
    73%

    25Did I not weep for those in trouble? Was not my soul grieved for the poor?

  • Job 35:9
    72%

    9Because of the multitude of oppressions, they make the oppressed cry: they cry out by reason of the power of the mighty.

  • Eccl 9:1
    71%

    1For all this I considered in my heart, even to declare all this, that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God. No one knows either love or hatred by all that is before them.

  • Eccl 3:10
    71%

    10I have seen the task which God has given to the sons of men to be occupied with.

  • Eccl 8:14
    71%

    14There is a vanity which is done upon the earth: there are just men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

  • Eccl 10:5
    71%

    5There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, like an error which proceeds from the ruler:

  • Eccl 5:8
    71%

    8If you see the oppression of the poor and the violent perversion of judgment and justice in a province, do not marvel at the matter; for He who is higher than the highest regards, and there are higher than they.

  • Ps 69:20
    71%

    20Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness; and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.

  • Eccl 1:3
    71%

    3What profit does a man have from all his labor which he does under the sun?

  • Eccl 2:17
    70%

    17Therefore I hated life, because the work that was done under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

  • Eccl 1:9
    70%

    9The thing that has been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

  • Eccl 3:22
    70%

    22Therefore I perceive that there is nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what shall be after him?

  • Lam 1:16
    70%

    16For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.

  • Eccl 9:13
    70%

    13This wisdom I have seen also under the sun, and it seemed great to me:

  • Eccl 8:16-17
    2 verses
    69%

    16When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the work that is done upon the earth (for there are those who neither day nor night see sleep with their eyes),

    17Then I saw all the work of God, that a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. Even though a man labors to seek it out, he shall not find it; moreover, though a wise man thinks to know it, he shall not be able to find it.

  • Eccl 5:13
    69%

    13There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners to their hurt.

  • Eccl 5:16
    69%

    16And this also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go; and what profit has he who has labored for the wind?

  • Eccl 7:14
    69%

    14In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: God also has set the one against the other, so that man should find nothing after him.

  • Eccl 9:3
    69%

    3This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that, they go to the dead.

  • Eccl 1:17
    69%

    17And I set my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is a striving after wind.

  • Lam 1:21
    69%

    21They have heard that I sigh: there is none to comfort me: all my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it: you will bring the day that you have promised, and they shall be like me.

  • Isa 22:4
    69%

    4Therefore I said, Look away from me; I will weep bitterly, do not labor to comfort me, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.

  • Job 3:18
    69%

    18There the prisoners rest together; they do not hear the voice of the oppressor.

  • Eccl 2:25
    69%

    25For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I?

  • Hab 1:4
    68%

    4Therefore the law is powerless, and justice never goes forth, for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore perverse judgment proceeds.

  • Eccl 3:12
    68%

    12I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives.

  • Eccl 2:15
    68%

    15So I said in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, so it happens even to me. And why was I then more wise?" Then I said in my heart, "This also is vanity."