Ecclesiastes 4:5

Foolish people refuse to work; they sit idly, with their hands folded, and do not work. So they ruin themselves.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.

In Context

4I also thought about all the hard work that people do and the skills that they have. And I thought about how they compete with each other because they are envious of others, and I concluded that this also is something that is not accomplishing anything useful, like chasing the wind.

6So I say, “It is better to be content with not having much money, than to work very hard and try to get a lot of money, which is as useless as chasing the wind.”

Read all of Ecclesiastes 4

Cross References

Proverbs 6:9But, you lazy loafer, how long will you continue to sleep [RHQ]? Are you never going to get up from sleeping and go to work?

Proverbs 6:11and suddenly you will become poor. It will be as though a bandit suddenly comes and takes all that you have.

Proverbs 12:27Lazy people do not even cook the meat of the animals that they catch/kill, but those who work hard will acquire (OR, are like) a valuable treasure.

Proverbs 20:4If a lazy man does not plow his fields at the right/proper time, he will look for crops at harvest time, but there will be nothing there.

Isaiah 9:20Israeli people will attack their neighbors on the right to get food from them, but they will still be hungry. They will kill those who live in houses on the left and eat their flesh, but their stomachs will still not be full.

Matthew Henry on Ecclesiastes 4:5-7

The Prevalence of Oppression. 4 Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit. 5 The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. 6 Better is a handful with quietness, than both the hands full with travail and vexation of spirit. Here Solomon returns to the observation and consideration of the vanity and vexation of spirit that attend the business of this world, which he had spoken of before, ch. ii.… Read the whole commentary →

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