49
1 Hear this, all you peoples;
listen, all who inhabit the world,
2 both common people and nobles, rich and poor together.
3 My mouth will speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart will be understanding.
4 I will incline my ear to a proverb and unfold my riddle with the lyre.
5 Why should I fear in days of evil, when the iniquity of those at my heels surrounds me,
6 those who trust in their wealth and boast of their great riches?
7 No man can ransom his brother or give God a ransom for him
8 —the ransom for their life is too costly;
he must give it up forever—
9 so that he might live on forever and never see the pit.
10 For he sees that the wise die;
the fool and the senseless perish together and leave their wealth to others.
11 Their inward thought is that their houses will last forever, their dwellings from generation to generation;
they name lands after themselves.
12 But man in his splendor does not remain;
he is like the beasts that perish.
13 This way of theirs is folly, yet those who follow them approve their words. Selah.
14 Like sheep they are destined for Sheol;
death will shepherd them.
The upright will rule over them in the morning;
Sheol will consume their form, far from their dwelling.
15 But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will take me. Selah.
16 Do not fear when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases.
17 For at his death he will take nothing with him;
his splendor will not descend after him.
18 Though in his lifetime he blesses himself—and people praise you when you do well for yourself—
19 his soul will go to the generation of his fathers;
they will never see light.
20 Man in his splendor, without understanding, is like the beasts that perish.