전도서 4:5의 주석

The fool. The wicked person.¹¹Alternatively, “the fool.” (Targum)

“The fool folds his hands and eats his flesh” (Ecclesiastes 4:5).
“The fool folds his hands” – To what is this matter analogous? To two people who were toiling in Torah; one toiled and flourished, and one toiled and abandoned it. The one who had toiled and abandoned it sees the one who flourished standing on the side of a group of the righteous, and he is standing on the side of a group of the wicked. Immediately, he “folds his hands and eats his flesh.”

Folds his hands. And does not toil, and he eats only from robbery.

And eats his own flesh. On the Day of Judgement, when he sees the righteous bestowed with honor, while he is being judged.¹²Alternatively, because he did not toil, he eventually dies from starvation (Ibn Ezra); or בשרו refers to “his relatives” that suffer on his account. See Rashi below 5:5 and also in Yeshayahu 58:7. It is expounded in this manner in Sifre.