Matthew Poole and continuators on Ecclesiastes 4:2

2 Wherefore I praised the dead which are already dead , more than the living which are yet alive .

I judged them more happy or less miserable. Which he seems to deliver not onely as the judgment of the flesh, or of the sense, or of men in misery, as this is commonly understood, but as his own Judgment. For this is most true and certain, that setting aside the advantage which this life gives him for the concerns of the future life, which Solomon doth not meddle with in the present debate, and considering the uncertainty, and vanity, and manifold vexations of mind, and outward calamities of the present life, a wise Man would not account it worth his while to live, and would choose death rather than life.

Those which are quite dead; who possibly are here opposed to them that in respect of their deplorable and desperate condition are even whilst they live called dead men, Isa. 26. 19. and said to die daily, 1 Cor. 15. 31.

Which languish under their pressures, of whom we can onely say, as we use to speak of dying men, They are alive, and that is all.

Marginal references: Job 3. [illegible: 1+ letters]7, &c. Ch. 6. 3.