This verse is often misinterpreted as promoting nihilism, suicide, or abortion by suggesting non-existence is preferable to life, ignoring its hyperbolic rhetoric as part of the Preacher's exploration of life's vanities to ultimately affirm fearing God; it neither endorses ending life—which contradicts biblical commands to value it—nor dismisses all joy, but uses stark imagery to highlight injustice's toll and urge wisdom beyond temporal woes.
Ecclesiastes 4:3
King James Version (1769)
3 Yea, better is he than both they, which hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
Ecclesiastes 4:3 captures the Preacher's deep pessimism amid observing widespread oppression and evil under the sun, where the oppressed suffer without comfort and power imbalances prevail; he deems those not yet born the most fortunate, as they escape witnessing such iniquity, emphasizing the vanity and sorrow of earthly existence and prompting reflection on life's fleeting hardships apart from divine purpose.