Psalms 49 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
The monarchy or later, in the wisdom teaching tradition that ran through Israel's history and continued after the exile
Location
Israel, addressed outward to all inhabitants of the world rather than to one nation
Audience
Everyone, rich and poor alike, in the manner of a wisdom teacher opening a lecture
Situation
The teacher takes up the problem of being surrounded by wealthy people who cheat and still thrive. His answer is that no amount of money buys anyone out of death, and that the grave levels the clever and the stupid alike.
Key Background
The opening calls the poem a riddle set to music, matching the wisdom tradition where hard questions were framed as puzzles and often performed with a stringed instrument. Rich men naming estates after themselves was a real practice in the ancient Near East, an attempt at a kind of immortality through property records. The hint that God will take the singer from the grip of death is one of the earliest and least developed gestures towards life beyond death in the Hebrew Bible, where the normal expectation was a shadowy existence in the realm of the dead rather than reward or punishment.
Listen to this, all you Pay attention, everyone alive in the
Whether you're or whether you're rich or struggling -- all of you.
What I'm about to say is What my heart speaks on is full of
I'll lean in close to a and unlock my with the sound of a
Why should I be afraid when come, when the of those who want to bring me down surrounds me --
those who put their in their and boast about how much money they have?
No one can another person's life. No one can pay God a for someone else --
because the of a human life is too high. No payment will ever be enough --
to let them live on forever and never see the
Look around -- even the people die. The and the senseless alike are destroyed, and they leave their wealth behind for someone else.
Deep down they think their will last forever, that they'll live on their estates through every generation. They even name their land after themselves.
But no human being, no matter how will last. They are just like the animals that die.
This is the path for those who are of and for those who follow them and swallow every word they say.
Like sheep they are headed for the grave. Death will be their The will triumph over them when comes. Their bodies will waste away in the grave, far from any mansion they built.
But God will my life from the grip of the -- he will actually me to himself. Selah.
Don't be when someone gets rich, when their fills up with expensive things.
Because when they die, they take nothing with them. Their expensive things won't follow them into the ground.
Even though they while they're alive -- and people praise you when you're doing well for yourself --
they will join the generation of their ancestors, who will never again see the
A person who has everything but doesn't this is just like the animals that die.