Psalm 49

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah.

¹ Hear this, all peoples!
Give ear, all inhabitants of the world,

² both low and high,
rich and poor together!

³My mouth shall speak wisdom;
the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.

⁴I will incline my ear to a proverb;
I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre.

⁵ Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of those who cheat me surrounds me,

⁶those who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?

⁷Truly no man can ransom another,
or give to God the price of his life,

⁸for the ransom of their life is costly
and can never suffice,

⁹that he should live on forever
and never see the pit.

¹⁰For he sees that even the wise die;
the fool and the stupid alike must perish
and leave their wealth to others.

¹¹Their graves are their homes forever,
their dwelling places to all generations,
though they called lands by their own names.

¹²Man in his pomp will not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.

¹³This is the path of those who have foolish confidence;
yet after them people approve of their boasts.

Selah

¹⁴Like sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
death shall be their shepherd,
and the upright shall rule over them in the morning.
Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell.

¹⁵But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me.

Selah

¹⁶Be not afraid when a man becomes rich,
when the glory of his house increases.

¹⁷ For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
his glory will not go down after him.

¹⁸For though, while he lives, he counts himself blessed
—and though you get praise when you do well for yourself—

¹⁹his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,
who will never again see light.

²⁰ Man in his pomp yet without understanding is like the beasts that perish.

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