Psalms 49

Listen to this, all you peoples. Pay attention, all of you who live in the world.

1Hear this, all ye people; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world:

NoteThe psalm opens by addressing not Israel but everyone alive, an opening more typical of the international wisdom teaching found in Proverbs and Job than of a temple song. The Hebrew word behind "world" here (heled) carries the sense of a span of time, a fleeting duration, so it means something like "all who live out their brief span on earth."

2Everyone, whether of low rank or high, rich and poor together.

2Both low and high, rich and poor, together.

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "sons of Adam and sons of man," using two different words for "man." The pairing was a standard way of saying commoners and men of rank, ordinary people and important ones. Together with "rich and poor" it means the whole of society, with nobody exempted from what follows.

3My mouth will speak wise words, and the thoughts of my heart will bring understanding.

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

4I will turn my ear to a wise saying. I will unfold my riddle while I play the harp.

4I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp.

Note"Wise saying" and "riddle" translate two Hebrew terms belonging to the wisdom teacher's craft: mashal, a compressed saying that holds a truth by comparison, and chidah, a puzzle or hard question whose meaning is not obvious on the surface. A riddle here is not a game but a difficult truth that has to be worked out. Note that the speaker says he will listen to it before he speaks it: the teacher presents himself as receiving the saying, not inventing it. Wisdom was often taught to music, and the harp (a small hand-held lyre) was the ordinary instrument for it.

5Why should I be afraid when bad times come, when the evil of those at my heels closes in around me?

5Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity of my heels shall compass me about?

NoteThe Hebrew of this line is obscure and has been read in several ways. "The iniquity of my heels" could mean the wrongdoing of those at my heels, that is, pursuers or supplanters closing in behind me (the same image lies behind the name Jacob, "heel-grabber"); or the guilt that follows at my own heels and catches up with me; or, by a slight change of reading, "the evil of my oppressors surrounds me." The rendering keeps the pursuers reading, but the ambiguity is in the original.

6They are people who trust in their money and brag about how much they own.

6They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;

7Not one of them can buy back his brother's life or pay God the price to set him free.

7None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

Note"Redeem" and "ransom" are legal and commercial words, not religious abstractions. To redeem was to pay a price to get something back out of another's hands, to buy a relative out of debt-slavery, or to buy back family land that had been sold. The duty fell on the nearest male relative, which is why the psalm says "his brother." A ransom was the sum accepted in place of a life that was forfeit; Israelite law allowed such a payment in some cases but expressly forbade it for murder. The point of the verse is that no such payment exists for death itself.

8The price to buy back a life is too high. No payment will ever be enough.

8(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:)

9No payment can make a person go on living forever and never rot in the grave.

9That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption.

10Anyone can see that wise men die, and that fools and stupid people die too. All of them leave their wealth to others.

10For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

Note"Stupid people" translates a Hebrew word (ba'ar) built on the idea of cattle or brute beasts, a person without the sense that distinguishes a human from an animal. The word plants the comparison that the psalm's refrain in verses 12 and 20 then makes explicit.

11Deep down they think their houses will last forever, and that their homes will stand for all time to come. They name their lands after themselves.

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.

NoteThe Hebrew here is uncertain. The consonants can be read as "their inward part" (hence the King James "their inward thought is" and this rendering's "deep down they think") or, with the same letters differently vowelled, as "their grave," giving "their graves are their eternal homes," which is how the ancient Greek and Syriac translators took it. On that second reading the verse is bitterly ironic: the only permanent house a rich man gets is his tomb. Naming estates after yourself was a real practice and a recognized bid to keep your name alive after death, when there was no other way to be remembered.

12But a man does not last, no matter how much honor he has. He is like the animals, which die.

12Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

NoteThe Hebrew verb translated "does not last" means literally "does not stay the night", a man in his glory is a guest who does not even remain until morning. This line returns as the psalm's closing refrain in verse 20, but with one Hebrew letter changed: here he "does not remain," there he "does not understand." Whether verse 12 originally matched verse 20 is disputed among translators.

13This way of theirs is their folly. Yet those who come after them agree with what they say. Selah.

13This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

NoteSelah appears seventy-one times in the Psalms and its meaning was already lost by the time of the earliest translations. It is generally taken as a direction for performance (a pause, a lifting of the voices, or an instrumental interlude between sections), rather than a word to be read aloud.

14Like sheep they are headed for the grave, and death will be their shepherd. In the morning the honest will rule over them. Their bodies will rot away in the grave, far from the fine houses they lived in.

14Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.

Note"The grave" translates Sheol, the Hebrew name for the underworld where all the dead go, good and bad alike. It is not a place of punishment as later usage of "hell" implies; it is simply the realm of the dead, pictured as a dim place below the earth from which no one returns. The image in this verse is savage wordplay: these men are livestock, and death is the herdsman who pastures them, the Hebrew verb can mean both "shepherd them" and "graze on them." "In the morning" carries the sense of a sudden reversal at daybreak, the hour when a verdict was given or a night of trouble ended.

15But God will buy my life back from the power of the grave, for he will take me to himself. Selah.

15But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah.

Note"Take me" translates a plain Hebrew verb meaning to fetch or receive someone, the same verb used of Enoch, whom God "took." What exactly is claimed here is disputed: it may mean rescue from dying now, or being received by God out of death itself. The Hebrew does not settle it.

16Do not be upset when someone becomes rich, when the splendor of his house keeps growing.

16Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

NoteThe Hebrew word is the ordinary one for being afraid. Applied to another man's growing wealth it means something closer to being overawed or unsettled by it, the reaction of someone who assumes the rich man's position is secure and his own is not.

17When he dies he will take nothing with him. His splendor will not go down into the grave after him.

17For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him.

18While he was alive he told himself how well he had done. And people do praise you when you do well for yourself.

18Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.

Note"He blessed his soul" means he congratulated himself, pronounced his own life a success. The second half of the verse switches abruptly to "you" and appears to quote a common saying of the day: look after your own interests and people will speak well of you. The psalm cites the proverb in order to set it against what follows in verse 19.

19Still, he will join the generations of his ancestors, who will never see the light again.

19He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light.

NoteTo "join the generation of his ancestors" was the standard Hebrew way of saying a person died, tied to the practice of burying family members together in one tomb, so that the dead were literally gathered to their kin. "Light" here means the daylight of the living world; the dead were thought of as in darkness, cut off from it.

20A man who has honor but no understanding is like the animals, which die.

20Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

NoteThe closing line repeats verse 12 with a single Hebrew letter changed, so that "does not remain" becomes "does not understand." It is the psalm's summary: what makes a man more than an animal is not what he owns but whether he grasps his own mortality.