The fool folds his hands and EATS his own flesh

[tonychanyt]

English Standard Version, Ecclesiastes 4:

5 The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.

Amplified Bible:

The fool folds his hands [together] and consumes his own flesh [destroying himself by idleness and apathy].

Similar metaphors are found elsewhere.

Psalm 27:

2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

It is a symbol of destruction.

Isaiah 49:

26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. Then all flesh shall know that I am the LORD your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”

Micah 3:

3 who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces and chop them up like meat in a pot, like flesh in a cauldron.

Evil people destroy themselves or others.