the Seventh Week after Epiphany
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Revised Standard Version
Ecclesiastes 4:5
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The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.
The foole foldeth his hands, and eateth vp his owne flesh.
The fool folds his armsand consumes his own flesh.
The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.
Some people say, "It is foolish to fold your hands and do nothing. If you don't work, you will starve to death."
The fool folds his hands [together] and consumes his own flesh [destroying himself by idleness and apathy].
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
Fools will fold their hands and starve to death.
Fools fold their arms together and eat their own flesh away.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
The foole foldeth his hands together, and eateth his owne flesh.
The fool folds his hands together, and eats his own flesh.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.
The fool refuses to work with his hands, so he has nothing to eat except his own skin!
The fool folds his hands together and eats his own flesh.
Some say it is foolish to fold your hands and do nothing, because you will starve to death.
The fool folds his hands and does no work, so he has nothing to eat but his own flesh.
The fool folds his hands And consumes his own flesh.
"Fools fold their idle hands, leading them to ruin."
The fool folds his hands and has no food to eat.
Fools fold their hands and consume their own flesh.
The dullard, claspeth his hands, and consumeth his own flesh.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh, saying:
The fool folds his hands together and suffers hunger.
They say that we would be fools to fold our hands and let ourselves starve to death.
The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
The foole foldeth his handes together, and eateth vp his owne fleshe.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
A fool foldith togidere hise hondis, and etith hise fleischis,
The fool is clasping his hands, and eating his own flesh:
The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.
The fool folds his hands together, and eats his own flesh.
The fool foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh.
The foolish man, folding his hands, takes the flesh of his body for food.
The foole foldeth his handes together, & eateth vp his owne flesh.
The fool sits back and takes it easy, His sloth is slow suicide.
The fool folds his hands and consumes his own flesh.
The fool folds his hands in embrace and consumes his own flesh.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
fool: Proverbs 6:10, Proverbs 6:11, Proverbs 12:27, Proverbs 13:4, Proverbs 20:4, Proverbs 24:33, Proverbs 24:34
eateth: That is, with envy - see Ecclesiastes 4:4, though too idle to follow his neighbour's example. Job 13:14, Proverbs 11:17, Isaiah 9:20
Reciprocal: Ephesians 5:29 - hated
Cross-References
And the LORD said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground.
And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
And Jacob saw that Laban did not regard him with favor as before.
and said to them, "I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.
And Moses was very angry, and said to the LORD, "Do not respect their offering. I have not taken one ass from them, and I have not harmed one of them."
Surely vexation kills the fool, and jealousy slays the simple.
May he remember all your offerings, and regard with favor your burnt sacrifices! [Selah]
Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?'
But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with jealousy, and contradicted what was spoken by Paul, and reviled him.
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
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. 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.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
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 Isaiah 49:26; Psalms 27:2; Micah 3:3.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Ecclesiastes 4:5. 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.
