Psalm 49
Audite haec omnes
- O HEAR ye this, all ye people; ponder it with your ears, all ye that dwell in the world;
- High and low, rich and poor, one with another.
- My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and my heart shall muse of understanding.
- I will incline mine ear to the parable, and show my dark speech upon the harp.
- Wherefore should I fear in the days of wickedness, and when the wickedness of my heels compasseth me round about?
- There be some that put their trust in their goods, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.
- But no man may deliver his brother, nor make agreement unto God for him;
- For it cost more to redeem their souls, so that he must let that alone for ever;
- Yea, though he live long, and see not the grave.
- For he seeth that wise men also die, and perish together, as well as the ignorant and foolish, and leave their riches for other.
- And yet they think that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places from one generation to another; and call the lands after their own names.
- Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not, seeing he may be compared unto the beasts that perish.
- This is the way of them that are foolish, and of them that consent unto them.
- They lie in the hell like sheep; death gnaweth upon them, and the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning: their beauty shall consume in the sepulchre out of their dwelling.
- But God hath delivered my soul from the place of hell; for he shall receive me.
- Be not thou afraid, though one be made rich, or if the glory of his house be increased;
- For he shall carry nothing away with him when he dieth, neither shall his pomp follow him.
- For while he lived, he counted himself an happy man; and so long as thou doest well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee.
- He shall follow the generation of his fathers, and shall never see light.
- Man that is in honour, and hath no understanding, is compared unto the beasts that perish.