Psalm 49

¹Hear this, all ye peoples;

Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world,

²Both low and high,

Rich and poor together.

³My mouth shall speak wisdom;

And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.

⁴I will incline mine ear to a parable:

I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

⁵Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil,

When iniquity at my heels compasseth me about?

⁶They that trust in their wealth,

And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

⁷None of them can by any means redeem his brother,

Nor give to God a ransom for him

⁸(For the redemption of their life is costly,

And it faileth for ever),

⁹That he should still live alway,

That he should not see corruption.

¹⁰For he shall see it. Wise men die;

The fool and the brutish alike perish,

And leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever,

And their dwelling-places to all generations;

They call their lands after their own names.

¹²But man being in honor abideth not:

He is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This their way is their folly:

Yet after them men approve their sayings.

¹⁴They are appointed as a flock for Sheol;

Death shall be their shepherd:

And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;

And their beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,

That there be no habitation for it.

¹⁵But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol;

For he will receive me.

¹⁶Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,

When the glory of his house is increased:

¹⁷For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away;

His glory shall not descend after him.

¹⁸Though while he lived he blessed his soul

(And men praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself),

¹⁹He shall go to the generation of his fathers;

They shall never see the light.

²⁰Man that is in honor, and understandeth not,

Is like the beasts that perish.