Ecclesiastes 4:5 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

The fool foldeth his hands, &c.— The fool, folding his hands together, and eating his own flesh, saith, Better is the palm of one hand full of rest, than both the hands full of work, and that which goes with the wind. Desvoeux; who observes, that metaphors derived from images which are not familiar to us, and which on that account may at first appear almost unintelligible, are sometimes easily understood, when you compare therewith the context: thus the expression, eating his own flesh, does not immediately raise in the mind the distinct idea of any particular passion; but when you see envy mentioned just before, and consider the thread of the argument, there can scarcely remain any doubt but that Solomon intended to describe an envious and idle man. So Iliad, i. ver. 243. Agamemnon is represented as tearing his own heart on account of a fault in which he is still resolved to persevere. So Ovid, describing Envy, says, Suppliciumque suum est, "She is her own torment;" and in some lines ascribed to Virgil it is said of her, that "She drinks up the whole blood while devouring the limbs;" totum bibit artubus cruorem; which he explains afterwards, by saying, that the more envy a man has in his heart, the greater torment he is to himself: Sibi poena semper ipse est.