Man’s Inhumanity to Man

The human family has long experienced terrible oppression and injustice. Based on his observations made nearly 3,000 years ago, King Solomon wrote: “I myself returned that I might see all the acts of oppression that are being done under the sun, and, look! the tears of those being oppressed, but they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, so that they had no comforter.

Eccl. 4:1-3.

Evidently Solomon had, at first, given only passing notice to man’s inhumanity to man. However, ‘upon returning,’ that is, reconsidering the matter, he was appalled at how great the oppression really was. Because the oppressors had the power or authority, the oppressed were forced to bear their sorrowful plight without anyone’s offering sympathy or comfort.