For the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.
Hear this, all ye peoples;
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world,
Both low and high,
Rich and poor together.
My mouth shall speak wisdom;
And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
I will incline mine ear to a parable:
I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil,
When {Or, the iniquity of them that would supplant me compasseth me about, Even of them that trust…riches?}iniquity at my heels compasseth me about?
They that trust in their wealth,
And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
Nor give to God a ransom for him;
(For the redemption of their life is costly,
And it faileth for ever),
That he should still live alway,
That he should not see {Or, the pit}corruption.
For {Or, he seeth that wise men &c.}he shall see it. Wise men die;
The fool and the brutish alike perish,
And leave their wealth to others.
Their 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.
But man being in honor abideth not:
He is like the beasts that perish.
This {Or, is the way of them that are foolish}their way is {Or, their confidence: and after &c.}their folly:
Yet after them men approve their sayings. [Selah
They 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.
But God will redeem my soul from the {Hebrew: hand.}power of Sheol;
For he will receive me. [Selah
Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,
When the {Or, wealth}glory of his house is increased:
For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away;
His glory shall not descend after him.
Though while he lived he blessed his soul
(And men praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself),
{Hebrew: Thou shall go, or, It shall go.}He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
{Or, Who never more see}They shall never see the light.
Man that is in honor, and understandeth not,
Is like the beasts that perish.
Querverweise zu Psalm 49,12 Ps 49,12
Man that is in honor, and understandeth not,Is like the beasts that perish.
{Or, I said in my heart concerning the sons of men, It is God &c.}I said in my heart, It is because of the sons of men, that God may prove them, and that they may see that they themselves are but as beasts.
For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one {Or, spirit}breath; and man hath no preeminence above the beasts: for all is vanity.
All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Who knoweth the spirit {Hebrew: of the sons of men.}of man, {Or, that goeth}whether it goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast, {Or, that goeth}whether it goeth downward to the earth?
Behold, thou hast made my days as handbreadths;And my life-time is as nothing before thee:Surely every man {Hebrew: standing firm.}at his best estate is altogether {Hebrew: a breath.}vanity. [Selah
For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, even so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them.
Nevertheless ye shall die like men,And fall like one of the princes.
and the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
For the sun ariseth with the scorching wind, and withereth the grass; and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his goings.
For, {Isaiah 40:6 ff.}All flesh is as grass,And all the glory thereof as the flower of grass.The grass withereth, and the flower falleth: