ä¼ é“ä¹¦ 4:5

Chinese NCV (Simplified)

愚昧人抱著手，吃自己的肉。

Parallel Translations

Chinese Union (Simplified)
愚 昧 人 抱 着 手 ， 吃 自 己 的 肉 。

Contextual Overview

⁴ I realized the reason people work hard and try to succeed: They are jealous of each other. This, too, is useless, like chasing the wind. ⁵ Some say it is foolish to fold your hands and do nothing, because you will starve to death. ⁶ Maybe so, but I say it is better to be content with what little you have. Otherwise, you will always be struggling for more, and that is like chasing the wind.

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

Genesis 4:10
Then the Lord said, "What have you done? Your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.

Genesis 4:11
And now you will be cursed in your work with the ground, the same ground where your brother's blood fell and where your hands killed him.

Genesis 31:2
Then Jacob noticed that Laban was not as friendly as he had been before.

Genesis 31:5
He said to them, "I have seen that your father is not as friendly with me as he used to be, but the God of my father has been with me.

Numbers 16:15
Then Moses became very angry and said to the Lord , "Don't accept their gifts. I have not taken anything from them, not even a donkey, and I have not done wrong to any of them."

Job 5:2
Anger kills the fool, and jealousy slays the stupid.

Psalms 20:3
May he remember all your offerings and accept all your sacrifices. Selah

Matthew 20:15
I can do what I want with my own money. Are you jealous because I am good to those people?'

Acts 13:45
Seeing the crowd, the Jewish people became very jealous and said insulting things and argued against what Paul said.

Hebrews 11:4
It was by faith that Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. God said he was pleased with the gifts Abel offered and called Abel a good man because of his faith. Abel 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.