The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
Parallel translations
- WEB The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.
- BSB The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.
- NKJV The fool folds his hands And consumes his own flesh.
- NASB The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.
- NLT “Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The fool's laziness is self-destruction: by refusing to work he consumes his own resources and ruins himself. It matters because idleness is not rest but a path to loss.
Overview
In a passage weighing the futility of toil, the Preacher refuses to swing from overwork to sloth. Folding the hands is a biblical image of refusing labor (Proverbs 6:10), and the fool who does so 'eats his own flesh,' wasting away. Scripture commends honest diligence as part of God's good order (2 Thessalonians 3:10), a creation mandate fulfilled and dignified in Christ, who Himself worked.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Isa 9:20And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm:
- Prov 6:10–11Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
- Prov 13:4The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat.
- Job 13:14Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?
- Prov 20:4The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold; therefore shall he beg in harvest, and have nothing.
- Prov 11:17The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.
- Prov 12:27The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting: but the substance of a diligent man is precious.
- Prov 24:33–34Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
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Christ at the center
The search that finds everything 'under the sun' to be vapor exposes the emptiness of life without God and drives us to the one who alone gives meaning, the resurrection that makes our labor not in vain.
How Ecclesiastes 4:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.