Ecclesiastes 4King James Version
I considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun, and the tears of the oppressed, and they had no comforter. Two are better than one. If they fall, the one will lift up his fellow. Woe to him that is alone when he falleth. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Qoheleth looks at oppression and finds no comforter for the victims. He envies the dead more than the living, and the unborn more than either. He observes that competitive work is driven by envy, that the miser works for no one, and that two are better than one because they can help each other when they fall. He closes with the instability of political power: the popular king is quickly forgotten.
Human striving under oppression and competition is vanity, but genuine companionship is one of the few real goods Qoheleth names in the book.
9: "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour." Followed immediately by the three scenarios where two survive what one cannot: falling, cold, attack. The logic is practical and the warmth in it is real.
Ancient Near Eastern society had no social safety net. Oppression of the poor was structurally baked in. When Qoheleth sees the tears of the oppressed with no comforter, he is describing something visible from any palace window. The detachment of the observation is its own kind of horror.
Qoheleth, observing the social world. No named individuals, but types: the oppressed with no comforter, the competitive worker driven by envy, the solitary miser, the poor wise child who becomes king and is then forgotten.
The threefold cord verse from this chapter is read at weddings around the world, usually stripped of its context. In context it is part of a meditation on loneliness as its own kind of vanity, and the rare value of being genuinely accompanied through life.
For when you are watching injustice and there is nothing you can do, or when you are doing everything alone and wondering why it feels hollow. Qoheleth sees both and refuses to pretend they are fine.
1So 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.
2Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet alive.
3Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
4Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
5The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
6Better is an handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit.
7Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun.
8There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.
9Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.
10For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.
11Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?
12And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
13Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.
14For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.
15I considered all the living which walk under the sun, with the second child that shall stand up in his stead.
16There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.