Charles Ellicott Commentary Ecclesiastes 4:5

"The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh." — Ecclesiastes 4:5 (ASV)

Eats his own flesh.— Interpreters have usually taken these words metaphorically, as in Psalms 27:2, Isaiah 49:26, and Micah 3:3, understanding them as a condemnation of the sluggard’s conduct as suicidal.

However, it has also been proposed, considering the verse in connection with the preceding and following verses, to understand them literally as “eats his meat.” The sense would then be that, given the emulation and envy involved in all successful exertion, one might be tempted to say that the sluggard who eats his meat in quiet does better.

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, “Therefore 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.