Ecclesiastes 4:5

5. The fool foldeth his hands together] Simple as the words seem they have received very different interpretations: (1) The fool (the word is the same as in ch. Ecc_2:14-16, and is that, the prominence of which in both Proverbs and Ecclesiastes serve as a connecting link between the two Books), the man without aim or insight, leading a half brutish life, “folds his hands” in the attitude of indolence (Pro_6:10; Pro_24:33), and yet even he, with his limited desires, attains to the fruition of those desires, “eats his meat” and rejoices more than the wise and far-sighted who finds his dexterous and successful work empty and unsatisfying. (So Ginsburg.) For this sense of the words “eateth his flesh,” we have the usage of Exo_16:8; Exo_21:28; Isa_22:13; Eze_39:17. So taken, this thought coheres with the context, and expresses the sense of contrast between the failure of aspiring activity and skill to attain the happiness they aim at, and the fact that those who do not even work for enjoyment get as full a share of it—perhaps, even a fuller—as those who do. (2) The last clause has been interpreted, as in the A.V., as meaning literally that the slothful man “consumes his own flesh,” i.e. reduces himself literally to the poverty and starvation which culminates in horrors such as this, as in Isa_9:20; Jer_19:9, or, figuratively, pines away under the corroding canker of envy and discontent. For the latter meaning, however, we have no authority in the language of the Old Testament, and so taken, the passage becomes only a warning, after the manner of the Proverbs, against the sin of sloth, and as such, is not in harmony with the dominant despondency of this stage of the writer’s experience. The view which sees in Ecc_4:5, the writer’s condemnation of sloth, and in Ecc_4:6 the answer of the slothful, seems out of keeping with the context.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ecc 4:5 The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.

Ver. 5. The fool foldeth his hands together.] A graphical and lively description of a sluggard, fitly called a fool (φαυλος), a naughty person. "Thou idle and evil servant." {Mat 25:26} God puts no difference between nequaquam and nequam, a drone and a naughty pack, seem he never so "wise in his own eyes," {Pro 26:16} and have he never so much reason to allege for himself - as in the verse here next following; a fool he is, and so he will soon prove himself; for "he folds up his hands and hides them in his own bosom." {Pro 26:15} A great many chares he is likely to do the while: {See Trapp on "Pro 19:24"} And as ( Neque mola, neque farina - nothing do, nothing have) "he eateth his own flesh" - he maketh many a hungry meal, he hath a dog’s life, as we say. "Ease slayeth this fool"; {Pro 1:32, marg.} poverty comes upon him as an armed man; grief also slays him; {Pro 21:25} envy consumes his flesh, and he is vexed at the plenty of painful persons, and, because he cannot come at, or rather pull out their hearts, he feeds upon his own.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Ecc 4:5. The fool foldeth his hands, &c. — Is careless and idle: perceiving that diligence is attended with envy, he runs into the other extreme. And eateth his own flesh — Wastes his substance, and brings himself to poverty, whereby his very flesh pines away for want of bread.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4:5-6 Fools do not even try to succeed and end up impoverished. Others frantically devote two handfuls—all their time and effort—to hard work in pursuit of fleeting wealth that they will have no time to enjoy (cp. Prov 23:4-5). Wise people practice moderation and contentment (quietness).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

For idleness he is compelled to destroy himself.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Still the

fool (the wicked oppressor) is not to be envied even in this life, who "folds his hands together" in idleness (Pro 6:10; Pro 24:33), living on the means he wrongfully wrests from others; for such a one

eateth his own flesh--that is, is a self-tormentor, never satisfied, his spirit preying on itself (Isa 9:20; Isa 49:26).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. The fool foldeth his hands] After all, without labour and industry no man can get any comfort in life; and he who gives way to idleness is the veriest of fools.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(5) Eateth his own flesh.—Interpreters have usually taken these words metaphorically, as in Psa_27:2; Isa_49:26; Mic_3:3, and understood them as a condemnation of the sluggard’s conduct as suicidal. But it has been proposed, taking the verse in connection with that which precedes and those which follow, to understand them literally, “eats his meat;” the sense being that, considering the emulation and envy involved in all successful exertion, one is tempted to say that the sluggard does better who eats his meat in quiet. There is, however, no exact parallel to the phrase “eats his flesh;” and I think that if the latter were the meaning intended, it would have been formally introduced in some such way as, “Wherefore I praised the sluggard.” Adopting, then, the ancient interpretation, we understand the course of conduct recommended to be the golden mean between the ruinous sloth of the fool and the vexatious toil of the ambitious man.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Pro 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, Isa 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, Pro 6:11. 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Foldeth his hands - The envious man is here exhibited in the attitude of the sluggard (marginal references).

Eateth his own flesh - i. e., “Destroys himself:” compare a similar expression in Isa 49:26; Psa 27:2; Mic 3:3.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Flesh, which he will not labour to sustain; (Haydock) or he repines at his own past misconduct, and at the affluence of others.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Foldeth his hands together; is careless and idle, which is the signification of this gesture, Pro 6:10; 19:24; 26:15. Perceiving that diligence is attended with envy, Ecc 4:4, he, like a fool, runs into the other extreme.

Eateth his own flesh; wasteth his substance, and bringeth himself to poverty, whereby his very flesh pineth away for want of bread, and he is reduced to skin and bone; and if he have any flesh left, he is ready to eat it through extremity of hunger.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. The fool… eateth his own flesh — The activity of the jealous is here contrasted with the quiet of the stupid, to the advantage of the latter: The stupid foldeth his hands, yet hath meat to eat. This can be said of him, that he enjoys the common blessings of life with small care or anxiety. Fool as he is, he shows something of philosophic calm and content.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The connection of this verse with the preceding is this: activity, diligence, and skill indeed bring success, but success is accompanied by sad results. Should we, then, sink into apathy, relinquish work, let things slide? Nay, none but the fool (kesil), the insensate, half-brutish man, doth this. The fool foldeth his hands together. The attitude expresses laziness and disinclination for active labor, like that of the sluggard in Pro_6:10. And eateth his own flesh. Ginsburg, Plumptre, and others take these words to mean "and yet eats his meat," i.e. gets that enjoyment from his sluggishness which is denied to active diligence. They refer, in proof of this interpretation, to Exo_16:8 Exo_21:28; Isa_22:13; Eze_39:17, in which passages, however, the phrase is never equivalent to "eating his food." The expression is really equivalent to "destroys himself," "brings ruin upon himself." Thus we have in Psa_27:2, "Evildoers came upon me to eat up my flesh;" and in Mic_3:3, "Who eat the flesh of my people". (comp. Isa_49:26) The sluggard is guilty ofmoral suicide; he takes no trouble to provide for his necessities, and suffers extremities in consequence. Some see in this verse and the following an objection and its answer. There is no occasion for this view, and it is not in keeping with the context; but it contains an intimation of the true exposition, which makes ver. 6 a proverbial statement of the sluggard"s position. The verbs in the text are participial in form, so that the Vulgate rendering, which supplies a verb, is quite admissible: Stultus complicat manna suas, et comedit carnes suas, dicens: Melior est, etc.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The fool - Is careless and idle: perceiving that diligence is attended with envy, he runs into the other extreme. Eateth - Wastes his substance, and brings himself to poverty, whereby his very flesh pines away for want of bread.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

There ought certainly to be activity according to our calling; indolence is self-destruction: "The fool foldeth his hands, and eateth his own flesh." He layeth his hands together (Prov 6:10-24:33), - placeth them in his bosom, instead of using them in working, - and thereby he eateth himself up, i.e., bringeth ruin upon himself (Psa 27:2; Mic 3:3; Isa 49:26); for instead of nourishing himself by the labour of his hands, he feeds on his own flesh, and thus wasteth away. The emphasis does not lie on the subject (the fool, and only the fool), but on the pred.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

The fool folds his hands and does not work

To fold the hands is a gesture of laziness and is another way of saying that the person refuses to work. AT: "The fool refuses to work" (See: Symbolic Action and Parallelism)

so his food is his own flesh

This speaks of a person destroying himself as if he were eating his own body. AT: "as a result, he causes his own ruin" or "and as a result, he destroys himself" (See: Metaphor)

a handful

"a small amount"

two handfuls

"a large amount." It is understood that this refer to profit gained. AT: "two handfuls of profit" or "a large amount of profit" (See: Ellipsis)

that tries to shepherd the wind

The author speaks of everything that people do as being useless as if they were trying to control the wind. See how you translated a similar phrase in Ecclesiastes 1:14. AT: "that is as useless as trying to control the wind" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

fool

works

flesh

profit

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

The fool The wicked man

folds his hands and does not toil, and he does not eat except from robbery.

and eats his own flesh on the Day of Judgment, when he sees righteous men experiencing honor, while he is being judged. It is explained in this manner in Sifrei (Deut. 11:26).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.