New Revised Standard Version
And I thought the dead, who have already died, more fortunate than the living, who are still alive;

Contemporary English Version
I said to myself, "The dead are better off than the living.

New American Bible
And those now dead, I declared more fortunate in death than are the living to be still alive.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And I praised the dead rather than the living:

And I praised the dead rather than the living:

Ecclesiastes 2:17 And therefore I was weary of my life, when I saw that all things under the sun are evil, and all vanity and vexation of spirit.

Ecclesiastes 9:4-6 There is no man that liveth always, or that hopeth for this: a living dog is better than a dead lion. . . .

Job 3:17-21 There the wicked cease from tumult, and there the wearied in strength are at rest. . . .