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Ecclesiastes 4:3-5
New International Reader's Version
Ecclesiastes 4:3-5
New International Reader's Version
3 But someone who hasn’t been born yet
is better off than the dead or the living.
That’s because that person hasn’t seen the evil things
that are done on earth.
4 I also saw that a person works hard and accomplishes a lot. But they do it only because they want what another person has. That doesn’t have any meaning either. It’s like chasing the wind.
5 Foolish people fold their hands and don’t work.
And that destroys them.
Ecclesiastes 4:3-5
New International Version
Ecclesiastes 4:3-5
New International Version
3 But better than both
is the one who has never been born,(A)
who has not seen the evil
that is done under the sun.(B)
4 And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.(C)
5 Fools fold their hands(D)
and ruin themselves.
New International Reader's Version (NIRV) 
Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.®. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
New International Version (NIV) 
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
NIV Reverse Interlinear Bible: English to Hebrew and English to Greek. Copyright © 2019 by Zondervan.