Ecclesiastes Chapter Four, No Comforter

Ecclesiastes 4:1 Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun: And look! The tears of the oppressed, but they have no comforter–on the side of their oppressors there is power, but they have no comforter.

This is in part a call back to Ecclesiastes 3:16, referring to those in power judging wickedly on behalf of those that can recompense them. We learn that the oppressed weep, but they have no one to comfort them for the injustices they suffer. Meanwhile those that enact oppression have power. The Hebrew word for “power” in this verse is, “kowach,” and means, “to be firm, vigor, or literally to use force in a good or bad way.”

So power in this instance does not mean authority, but rather ability. Or to word it differently, as moral beings we have power (ability) to do something, but not always the right (authority) to do that thing. When we exercise our power to abuse our authority, that power is used for wrong, and our actions become sin. God’s revelatory power in the human conscience demonstrates to every man what right and wrong is, and God, by the revelation of the Law, shows that humanity is only allowed to do what is right. We have both power and authority to do such things. But to do wrong man has power but not authority, and by choosing what is wrong we reveal our rebellious desire to usurp autonomy from the Creator for ourselves. We are still trying to fulfill the lie that Satan told Eve in the Garden, when he said, “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil,” Genesis 3:5. In layman’s terms, Satan told Eve that by exercising her power to act in a way contrary to God’s revealed will and asserting her own will, she would demonstrate her autonomous authority, and in this sense be like God Himself.

Clearly, that didn’t work out very well for her, or for us. Those in power oppress, and those beneath them receive that oppression. Whatever form this comes in, it results in duress so great that the oppressed weep. One can think of a despotic government, whose citizens are crushed beneath the weight of a dictator that does not have the people’s interests at heart. It could be something as intimate as a husband and father who controls his family with an iron fist and brooks no challenges to his authority. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Again, God did not give power to abuse others; when we use both power and authority to transgress the conscience and God’s revealed will through Scripture, we are not practicing rulership, we are fomenting rebellion. We are petty gods, pretending at being something we do not have the qualifications or ability for.

Twice we are informed that the oppressed lack a comforter. The Hebrew word for “comforter” is “nacham,” and means “to sigh, to pity, console, repent or comfort.” By implication the definition means to breathe strongly. The word comforter would make a Christian think of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. In the KJV, John 14:26 reads, “But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.” The Greek term for Ghost in that verse (translated more appropriately as Spirit in the NKJV), is “pneuma,” which means, “a current of air, breath or a breeze.” The correlation between the Hebrew comforter “nacham” and the Greek Spirit “pneuma” is interesting to say the least.

Ecclesiastes 4:2 Therefore I praised the dead who are 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 nihilism that flavors Ecclesiastes is on full display with this first verse. The preacher just finished reflecting on the oppressed that suffer beneath those in power, and how no one comforts them, none come to their aid. There is no equity or fairness. Life is vanity, and it is on full display.

Upon his appraisal from verse 1, the preacher praises the dead. Why? The living still suffer under the lopsided oppression of human avarice and hubris, while the dead have been removed from its reach. The dead have no more ambition, or pride, or fear, confusion or concerns. From the perspective of being under the sun, the dead are quiet, still, and forgotten. They are names on stones, or names recalled in books or from memory, with those names increasingly detached from the person and legacy that once housed that name. In short, the dead demand nothing, because the dead know nothing. This, of course, comes from an earthly, horizontal perspective regarding the dead. The preacher isn’t interested in mincing words about where the spirit of man goes after death. Currently, he’s lauding the dead for escaping the tyranny of abusive power by men in authority, and how they exploit power for gain, to the hurt of others.

Taking it one step further, the preacher commends the hypothetical man that has not been born. Mind you, he is not referring to a stillborn child or miscarriage, but an actual human that has not been conceived. Such a man would never bear witness to, be a victim of, or partake in the injustices the preacher laments over. As far as positional superiority is concerned, he commends the unmade man who never knew the light of day; he is, as he puts it, better. The NASB, taking the rendering just a little further, renders the phrase, “better off.” Oxford defines “better off,” as being, “in a more favorable position.” The preacher weighs in, and suggests that never having existed is a better state for man than to enter a world filled with futility and struggle, in which justice is perverted and wickedness is lauded as something commendable. But why, one must wonder, does the preacher rage against this? Why are certain actions considered wicked, and others just? Why does the human spirit despise wickedness and commend righteousness on an almost instinctual level? These are questions that will continue being pondered as Ecclesiastes goes on.