Psalms 49:7-17

7 A brother again-buyeth not, shall a man again-buy? and he shall not give to God his pleasing. (No one shall ever be able to redeem himself; he shall never be able to pay God the price that he asketh for him.)
8 And he shall not (be able to) give the price of ransom for his soul; and he shall travail into without end, (Yea, he shall never be able to pay the price of ransom for his own soul; even if he could work forever,)
9 and he shall live yet into the end. He shall not see perishing, (so that he would live forever, and not see perishing, or corruption.)
10 when he shall see wise men dying; the unwise man and the fool shall perish together. And they shall leave their riches to aliens; (For he seeth that the wise die; and that the foolish and the ignorant perish together with them. But they all leave their riches to others, even strangers;)
11 and the sepulchres of them be the houses of them without end. The tabernacles of them be in generation and in generation; they called their names in their lands. (and their tombs, or their graves, shall be their houses forever. Yea, their dwelling places for all generations; even though their lands were once called by their own names.)
12 A man/Man, when he was in honour, understood not; he is comparisoned to unwise beasts, and is made like to those. (For anyone, even when he hath been given great honour, liveth not forever; he is comparable to the unthinking beasts, and soon is made like them.)
13 This way of them is cause of stumbling to them; and afterward they shall please (al)together in their mouth. (Their way is a trap for themselves; and for all who seek to please them.)
14 As sheep they be put in hell; death shall gnaw them. And just men shall be lords of them in the morrowtide; and the help of them shall wax eld in hell, for the glory of them/from the glory of them. (Like sheep they go down to Sheol, or the land of the dead; and death shall gnaw on them. The righteous shall be their lords; and their bodies shall grow old, or rotten, in Sheol, so different from their days of glory.)
15 Nevertheless God shall again-buy my soul from the power of hell; when he shall take me. (But God shall redeem my soul; and he shall take me away from the power of Sheol, or the power of death.)
16 Dread thou not (Fear thou not), when a man is made rich; and when the glory of his house is multiplied.
17 For when he shall die, he shall not take all things with him (he shall not take anything with him); and his glory shall not go down with him.

Psalms 49:7-17 Meaning and Commentary

To the chief Musician, A Psalm for the sons of Korah. Aben Ezra says this psalm is a very excellent one, since in it is explained the Light of the world to come, and of the rational and immortal soul; and Kimchi is of opinion that it respects both this world and that which is to come: and indeed it treats of the vanity of trusting in riches: of the insufficiency of them for the redemption of the soul; of the short continuance of worldly honour and substance; of the certainty of death, and of the resurrection of the dead. And the design of it is to expose the folly of trusting in uncertain riches, and to comfort the people of God under the want of them.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.