Ecclesiastes 4:5

5 Fools fold their hands and eat their own flesh.

Ecclesiastes 4:5 Meaning and Commentary

Ecclesiastes 4:5

The fool foldeth his hands together
In order to get more sleep, or as unwilling to work; so the Targum adds,

``he folds his hands in summer, and will not labour;''

see ( Proverbs 6:10 ) . Some persons, to escape the envy which diligence and industry bring on men, will not work at all, or do any right work, and think to sleep in a whole skin; this is great folly and madness indeed: and eateth his own flesh;
such a man is starved and famished for want of food, so that his flesh is wasted away; or he is so hungry bitten, that he is ready to eat his own flesh; or he hereby brings to ruin his family, his wife, and children, which are his own flesh, ( Isaiah 58:7 ) . The Targum is,

``in winter he eats all he has, even the covering of the skin of his flesh.''

Some understand this of the envious man, who is a fool, traduces the diligent and industrious, and will not work himself; and not only whose idleness brings want and poverty on him as an armed man, but whose envy eats up his spirit, and is rottenness in his bones, ( Proverbs 6:11 ) ( 14:30 ) . Jarchi, out of a book of theirs called Siphri, interprets this of a wicked man in hell, when he sees the righteous in glory, and he himself judged and condemned.

Ecclesiastes 4:5 In-Context

3 But happier than both are those who have never existed, who haven't witnessed the terrible things that happen under the sun.

4 I also observed that people work hard and become good at what they do only out of mutual envy. This too is pointless, just wind chasing.

5 Fools fold their hands and eat their own flesh.

6 But better is resting with one handful than working hard for two fistfuls and chasing after wind.

7 Next, I saw under the sun something else that was pointless: