Psalms 49:4-14

⁴I will put my teaching into a story; I will make my dark sayings clear with music.

⁵What cause have I for fear in the days of evil, when the evil-doing of those who are working for my downfall is round about me?

⁶Even of those whose faith is in their wealth, and whose hearts are lifted up because of their stores.

⁷Truly, no man may get back his soul for a price, or give to God the payment for himself;

⁸(Because it takes a great price to keep his soul from death, and man is not able to give it.)

⁹So that he might have eternal life, and never see the underworld.

¹⁰For he sees that wise men come to their end, and foolish persons of low behaviour come to destruction together, letting their wealth go to others.

¹¹The place of the dead is their house for ever, and their resting-place through all generations; those who come after them give their names to their lands.

¹²But man, like the animals, does not go on for ever; he comes to an end like the beasts.

¹³This is the way of the foolish; their silver is for those who come after them, and their children get the pleasure of their gold. (Selah.)

¹⁴Death will give them their food like sheep; the underworld is their fate and they will go down into it; their flesh is food for worms; their form is wasted away; the underworld is their resting-place for ever.