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

The fool is clasping his hands, and eating his own flesh:

The fool folds his hands together, and eats his own flesh.

The foolish man, folding his hands, takes the flesh of his body for food.

The foolish man folds his hands together, and he consumes his own flesh, saying:

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; Psalm 27:2; Micah 3:3.

The fool foldeth his hands - After all, without labor and industry no man can get any comfort in life; and he who gives way to idleness is the veriest of fools.

The fool foldeth his hands together, and (e) eateth his own flesh.
(e) For idleness he is compelled to destroy himself.

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.

Still the
fool (the wicked oppressor) is not to be envied even in this life, who "folds his hands together" in idleness (Proverbs 6:10; Proverbs 24:33), living on the means he wrongfully wrests from others; for such a one
eateth his own flesh--that is, is a self-tormentor, never satisfied, his spirit preying on itself (Isaiah 9:20; Isaiah 49:26).

There ought certainly to be activity according to our calling; indolence is self-destruction: "The fool foldeth his hands, and eateth his own flesh." He layeth his hands together (Prov 6:10-24:33), - placeth them in his bosom, instead of using them in working, - and thereby he eateth himself up, i.e., bringeth ruin upon himself (Psalm 27:2; Micah 3:3; Isaiah 49:26); for instead of nourishing himself by the labour of his hands, he feeds on his own flesh, and thus wasteth away. The emphasis does not lie on the subject (the fool, and only the fool), but on the pred.

The fool - Is careless and idle: perceiving that diligence is attended with envy, he runs into the other extreme. Eateth - Wastes his substance, and brings himself to poverty, whereby his very flesh pines away for want of bread.