yea, better than them both did I esteem him that hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

And I judged him happier than them both, that is not yet born, nor hath seen the evils that are done under the sun.

and more fortunate than both is he who hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

Yes, happier than the dead or the living seemed he who has not ever been, who has not seen the evil which is done under the sun.

And happier than both of these, I judged him to be, who has not yet been born, and who has not yet seen the evils which are done under the sun.

Which hath not yet been - Better never to have been born into the world, than to have seen and suffered so many miseries.

Yea, (c) better [is he] than both they, who hath not yet been, who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.
(c) He speaks according to the judgment of the flesh which cannot abide to feel or see troubles.

Yea, better is he than both they which hath not yet been,.... That is, an unborn person; who is preferred both to the dead that have seen oppression, and to the living that are under it; see Job 3:10. This supposes a person to be that never was, a mere nonentity; and the judgment made is according to sense, and regards the dead purely as such, and so as free from evils and sorrows, without any respect to their future state and condition; for otherwise an unborn person is not happier than the dead that die in Christ, and live with him: and it can only be true of those that perish, of whom indeed it might be said, that it would have been better for them if they had never been born, according to those words of Christ, Matthew 26:24; and is opposed to the maxim of some philosophers, that a miserable being is better than none at all. The Jews, from this passage, endeavour to prove the pre-existence of human souls, and suppose that such an one is here meant, which, though created, was not yet sent into this world in a body, and so had never seen evil and sorrow; and this way some Christian writers have gone. It has been interpreted also of the Messiah, who in Solomon's time had not yet been a man, and never known sorrow, which he was to do, and has, and so more happy than the dead or living. But these are senses that will not bear; the first is best; and the design is to show the great unhappiness of mortals, that even a nonentity is preferred to them;
who hath not seen the evil work that is done under the sun? the evil works of oppressors, and the sorrows of the oppressed.

not seen--nor experienced.

Better is he - Who was never born. Not seen - Not felt: for as seeing good is put for enjoying it, so seeing evil is put for suffering it.