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Selected Verse: Psalms 49:13 - Strong Concordance

Verse	Translation	Text
Ps 49:13	Strong Concordance	This their way [01870] is their folly [03689]: yet their posterity [0310] approve [07521] their sayings [06310]. Selah [05542].
	King James	This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
Though their way is folly, others follow the same course of life.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

Though their way is folly, others follow the same course of life.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
This their way is their folly - This might be rendered, "This is their way or course of life. It is their folly;" or, such is their folly. On the word "way," see the notes at Psa 1:6. The idea is, that it is folly for a man to cherish these hopes; to feel that wealth is of so much importance; to imagine that it can deliver from the grave; to suppose that he can perpetuate his own name, and secure his possessions in his own family upon the earth. And yet the world is still full of people as foolish as were those in the time of the psalmist; people who will not be admonished by the suggestions of reason, or by the experience of 6,000 years in the past. This is one thing in which the world makes no progress - in which it learns nothing from the experience of the past; and as the beaver under the influence of instinct builds his house and his home now in the same way that the first beaver did his, and as the brutes all act in the same manner from generation to generation, accumulating no knowledge, and making no advances from the experience of the past, so it is with people in their desire to grow rich. On other points the world accumulates knowledge, and profits from experience, garnering up the lessons taught by past experiment and observation, and thus becoming wiser in all other respects; but in regard to the desire of wealth, it makes no progress, gains no knowledge, derives no advantage, from the generations of fools that have lived and died in past ages. They now engage in the pursuit of gold with the same zeal, and the same expectation and hope which were evinced in the first ages of the world, and "as if" their own superior skill and wisdom could set at nought all the lessons taught by the past. Yet their posterity - The coming generation is as confident and as foolish as the one that went before. Approve their sayings - Margin, "delight in their mouth." That is, they delight or take pleasure in what proceeds from their mouth; in what they say; in their views of things. They adopt "their" principles, and act on "their" maxims; and, attaching the same importance to wealth which "they" did, seek as "they" sought to perpetuate their names upon the earth.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

This their way is their folly - This might be rendered, "This is their way or course of life. It is their folly;" or, such is their folly. On the word "way," see the notes at Psa 1:6. The idea is, that it is folly for a man to cherish these hopes; to feel that wealth is of so much importance; to imagine that it can deliver from the grave; to suppose that he can perpetuate his own name, and secure his possessions in his own family upon the earth. And yet the world is still full of people as foolish as were those in the time of the psalmist; people who will not be admonished by the suggestions of reason, or by the experience of 6,000 years in the past. This is one thing in which the world makes no progress - in which it learns nothing from the experience of the past; and as the beaver under the influence of instinct builds his house and his home now in the same way that the first beaver did his, and as the brutes all act in the same manner from generation to generation, accumulating no knowledge, and making no advances from the experience of the past, so it is with people in their desire to grow rich. On other points the world accumulates knowledge, and profits from experience, garnering up the lessons taught by past experiment and observation, and thus becoming wiser in all other respects; but in regard to the desire of wealth, it makes no progress, gains no knowledge, derives no advantage, from the generations of fools that have lived and died in past ages. They now engage in the pursuit of gold with the same zeal, and the same expectation and hope which were evinced in the first ages of the world, and "as if" their own superior skill and wisdom could set at nought all the lessons taught by the past.

Yet their posterity - The coming generation is as confident and as foolish as the one that went before.

Approve their sayings - Margin, "delight in their mouth." That is, they delight or take pleasure in what proceeds from their mouth; in what they say; in their views of things. They adopt "their" principles, and act on "their" maxims; and, attaching the same importance to wealth which "they" did, seek as "they" sought to perpetuate their names upon the earth.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
(Heb.: 49:14-21) Second part of the discourse, of equal compass with the first. Those who are thought to be immortal are laid low in Hades; whilst, on the other hand, those who cleave to God can hope to be redeemed by Him out of Hades. Olshausen complains on this passage that the expression is abrupt, rugged, and in part altogether obscure. The fault, however, lies not, as he thinks, in a serious corruption of the text, but in the style, designedly adopted, of Psalms like this of a gloomy turn. זה דרכּם refers back to Psa 49:13, which is the proper mashal of the Psalm: this is their way or walk (דּרך as in Psa 37:5, cf. Hag 1:5). Close upon this follows כּסל למו (their way), of those (cf. Psa 69:4) who possess self-confidence; כּסל signifies confidence both in a good and bad sense, self-confidence, impudence, and even (Ecc 7:25) in general, folly. The attributive clause is continued in Psa 49:14: and of those who after them (i.e., when they have spoken, as Hitzig takes it), or in a more universal sense: after or behind them (i.e., treading in their footsteps), have pleasure in their mouth, i.e., their haughty, insolent, rash words (cf. Jdg 9:38). If the meaning were "and after them go those who," etc., then one would expect to find a verb in connection with אחריהם (cf. Job 21:33). As a collateral definition, "after them = after their death," it would, however, without any reason, exclude the idea of the assent given by their contemporaries. It is therefore to be explained according to Job 29:22, or more universally according to Deu 12:30. It may seem remarkable that the music here strikes in forte; but music can on its part, in mournfully shrill tones, also bewail the folly of the world. Psa 49:14, so full of eschatological meaning, now describes what becomes of the departed. The subject of שׁתּוּ (as in Psa 73:9, where it is Milra, for שׁתוּ) is not, as perhaps in the case of ἀπαιτοῦσιν, Luk 12:20, higher powers that are not named; but שׁוּת (here שׁתת), as in Psa 3:7, Hos 6:11; Isa 22:7, is used in a semi-passive sense: like a herd of sheep they lay themselves down or they are made to lie down לשׁאול (thus it is pointed by Ben-Asher; whereas Ben-Naphtali points לשׁאול, with a silent Sheb), to Hades = down into Hades (cf. Psa 88:7), so that they are shut up in it like sheep in their fold. And who is the shepherd there who rules these sheep with his rod? מות ירעם. Not the good Shepherd (Psa 23:1), whose pasture is the land of the living, but Death, into whose power they have fallen irrecoverably, shall pasture them. Death is personified, as in Job 18:14, as the king of terrors. The modus consecutivus, ויּרדּוּ, now expresses the fact that will be realized in the future, which is the reverse side of that other fact. After the night of affliction has swiftly passed away, there breaks forth, for the upright, a morning; and in this morning they find themselves to be lords over these their oppressors, like conquerors, who put their feet upon the necks of the vanquished (the lxx well renders it by κατακυριεύσουσιν). Thus shall it be with the upright, whilst the rich at their feet beneath, in the ground, are utterly destroyed. לבּקר has Rebia magnum, ישׁרים has Asla-Legarme; accordingly the former word does not belong to what follows (in the morning, then vanishes...), but to what precedes. צוּר or ציר (as in Isa 45:16) signifies a form or image, just as צוּרה (Arab. tsûrat) is generally used; properly, that which is pressed in or pressed out, i.e., primarily something moulded or fashioned by the pressure of the hand (as in the case of the potter, יצר) or by means of some instrument that impresses and cuts the material. Here the word is used to denote materiality or corporeity, including the whole outward appearance (φαντασία, Act 25:23). The לו which refers to this, shows that וצוּרם is not a contraction of וצוּרתם (vid., on Psa 27:5). Their materiality, their whole outward form belonging to this present state of being, becomes (falls away) לבלּות שׁאול. The Lamed is used in the same way as in היה לבער, Isa 6:13; and שׁאול is subject, like, e.g., the noun that follows the infinitive in Psa 68:19; Job 34:22. The same idea is obtained if it is rendered: and their form Hades is ready to consume (consumturus est); but the order of the words, though not making this rendering impossible (cf. Psa 32:9, so far as עדיו there means "its cheek"), is, however, less favourable to it (cf. Pro 19:8; Est 3:11). בּלּה was the most appropriate word for the slow, but sure and entire, consuming away (Job 13:28) of the dead body which is gnawed or destroyed in the grave, this gate of the lower world. To this is added מזּבל לו as a negative definition of the effect: so that there no longer remains to it, i.e., to the pompous external nature of the ungodly, any dwelling-place, and in general any place whatever; for whatever they had in and about themselves is destroyed, so that they wander to and fro as bare shadows in the dreary waste of Hades. To them, who thought to have built houses for eternity and called great districts of country after their own names, there remains no longer any זבל of this corporeal nature, inasmuch as Hades gradually and surely destroys it; it is for ever freed from its solid and dazzling shell, it wastes away lonesome in the grave, it perishes leaving no trace behind. Hupfeld's interpretation is substantially the same, and that of Jerome even is similar: et figura eorum conteretur in infero post habitaculum suum; and Symmachus: τὸ δὲ κρατερὸν αὐτῶν παλαιώσει ᾴδης ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκήσεως τῆς ἐντίμου αὐτῶν. Other expositors, it is true, solve the riddle of the half-verse in a totally different way. Mendelssohn refers צוּרם to the upright: whose being lasts longer than the grave (survives it), hence it cannot be a habitation (eternal dwelling) to it; and adds, "the poet could not speak more clearly of the resurrection (immortality)." (Note: In the fragments of a commentary to his translation of Psalms, contributed by David Friedlnder.) A modern Jewish Christian, Isr. Pick, looked upon in Jerusalem as dead, sees here a prediction of the breaking through of the realm of the dead by the risen One: "Their Rock is there, to break through the realm of the dead, that it may no longer serve Him as an abode." (Note: In a fugitive paper of the so-called Amen Congregation, which noo unhappily exists no longer, in Mnchen-Gladbach.) Von Hofmann's interpretation (last of all in his Schriftbeweis ii. 2, 499, 2nd edition) lays claim to a more detailed consideration, because it has been sought to maintain it against all objections. By the morning he understands the end of the state or condition of death both of the righteous and of the ungodly. "In the state of death have they both alike found themselves: but now the dominion of death is at an end, and the dominion of the righteous beings." But those who have, according to Psa 49:15, died are only the ungodly, not the righteous as well. Hofmann then goes on to explain: their bodily form succumbs to the destruction of the lower world, so that it no longer has any abode; which is said to convey the thought, that the ungodly, "by means of the destruction of the lower world, to which their corporeal nature in common with themselves becomes subject, lose its last gloomy abode, but thereby lose their corporeal nature itself, which has now no longer any continuance:" "their existence becomes henceforth one absolutely devoid of possessions and of space, ["the exact opposite of the time when they possessed houses built for eternity, and broad tracts of country bore their name."] But even according to the teaching of the Old Testament concerning the last things, in the period after the Exile, the resurrection includes the righteous and the unrighteous (Dan 12:2); and according to the teaching of the New Testament, the damned, after Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire, receive another זבול, viz., Gehenna, which stands in just the same relation to Hades as the transformed world does to the old heavens and the old earth. The thought discovered in Psa 49:15, therefore, will not bear being put to the proof. There is, however, this further consideration, that nothing whatever is known in any other part of the Old Testament of such a destruction of Shel; and לבלּות found in the Psalm before us would be a most inappropriate word to express it, instead of which it ought to have been לכלּות; for the figurative language in Psa 102:27; Isa 51:6, is worthless as a justification of this word, which signifies a gradual wearing out and using up or consuming, and must not, in opposition to the usage of the language, be explained according to עב and בּלי. For this reason we refrain from making this passage a locus classicus in favour of an eschatological conception which cannot be supported by any other passage in the Old Testament. On the other side, however, the meaning of לבּקר is limited if it be understood only of the morning which dawns upon the righteous one after the night of affliction, as Kurtz does. What is, in fact, meant is a morning which not merely for individuals, but for all the upright, will be the end of oppression and the dawn of dominion: the ungodly are totally destroyed, and they (the upright) now triumph above their graves. In these words is expressed, in the manner of the Old Testament, the end of all time. Even according to Old Testament conception human history closes with the victory of good over evil. So far Psa 49:15 is really a "riddle" of the last great day; expressed in New Testament language, of the resurrection morn, in which οἱ ἅγιοι τὸν κόσμον κρινοῦσι (Co1 6:2). With אך, in Psa 49:16 (used here adversatively, as e.g., in Job 13:15, and as אכן is more frequently used), the poet contrasts the totally different lot that awaits him with the lot of the rich who are satisfied in themselves and unmindful of God. אך belongs logically to נפשׁי, but (as is moreover frequently the case with רק, גּם, and אף) is, notwithstanding this relation to the following member of the sentence, placed at the head of the sentence: yet Elohim will redeem my soul out of the hand of Shel (Psa 89:49; Hos 13:14). In what sense the poet means this redemption to be understood is shown by the allusion to the history of Enoch (Gen 5:24) contained in כּי יקּחני. Bttcher shrewdly remarks, that this line of the verse is all the more expressive by reason of its relative shortness. Its meaning cannot be: He will take me under His protection; for לקח does not mean this. The true parallels are Psa 73:24, Gen 5:24. The removals of Enoch and Elijah were, as it were, fingerposts which pointed forward beyond the cheerless idea they possessed of the way of all men, into the depth of Hades. Glancing at these, the poet, who here speaks in the name of all upright sufferers, gives expression to the hope, that God will wrest him out of the power of Sheפl and take him to Himself. It is a hope that possesses not direct word of God upon which it could rest; it is not until later on that it receives the support of divine promise, and is for the present only a "bold flight" of faith. Now can we, for this very reason, attempt to define in what way the poet conceived of this redemption and this taking to Himself. In this matter he himself has no fully developed knowledge; the substance of his hope is only a dim inkling of what may be. This dimness that is only gradually lighted up, which lies over the last things in the Old Testament, is the result of a divine plan of education, in accordance with which the hope of eternal life was gradually to mature, and to be born as it were out of this wrestling faith itself. This faith is expressed in Psa 49:16; and the music accompanies his confidence in cheerful and rejoicing strains. After this, in Psa 49:17, there is a return from the lyric strain to the gnomic and didactic. It must not, with Mendelssohn, be rendered: let it (my soul) not be afraid; but, since the psalmist begins after the manner of a discourse: fear thou not. The increasing כבוד, i.e., might, abundance, and outward show (all these combined, from כּבד, grave esse), of the prosperous oppressor is not to make the saint afraid: he must after all die, and cannot take hence with him הכּל, the all = anything whatever (cf. לכּל, for anything whatever, Jer 13:7). כּי, Psa 49:17, like ἐάν, puts a supposable case; כּי, Psa 49:18, is confirmatory; and כּי, Psa 49:19, is concessive, in the sense of גּם־כּי, according to Ew. 362, b: even though he blessed his soul during his life, i.e., called it fortunate, and flattered it by cherished voluptuousness (cf. Deu 29:18, התבּרך בּנפשׁו, and the soliloquy of the rich man in Luk 12:19), and though they praise thee, O rich man, because thou dost enjoy thyself (Luk 16:25), wishing themselves equally fortunate, still it (the soul of such an one) will be obliged to come or pass עד־דּור אבותיו. There is no necessity for taking the noun דּור here in the rare signification dwelling (Arabic dâr, synonym of Menzı̂l), and it appears the most natural way to supply נפשׁו as the subject to תּבוא (Hofmann, Kurtz, and others), seeing that one would expect to find אבותיך in the case of תבוא being a form of address. And there is then no need, in order to support the synallage, which is at any rate inelegant, to suppose that the suffix יו-takes its rise from the formula אל־אבתיו (נאסף) בּוא, and is, in spite of the unsuitable grammatical connection, retained, just as יחדּו and כּלּם, without regard to the suffixes, signify "together" and "all together" (Bttcher). Certainly the poet delights in difficulties of style, of which quite sufficient remain to him without adding this to the list. It is also not clear whether Psa 49:20 is intended to be taken as a relative clause intimately attached to אבותיו, or as an independent clause. The latter is admissible, and therefore to be preferred: there are the proud rich men together with their fathers buried in darkness for ever, without ever again seeing the light of a life which is not a mere shadowy life. The didactic discourse now closes with the same proverb as the first part, Psa 49:13. But instead of בּל־ילין the expression here used is ולא יבין, which is co-ordinate with בּיקר as a second attributive definition of the subject (Ew. 351, b): a man in glory and who has no understanding, viz., does not distinguish between that which is perishable and that which is imperishable, between time and eternity. The proverb is here more precisely expressed. The gloomy prospect of the future does not belong to the rich man as such, but to the worldly and carnally minded rich man.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

(Heb.: 49:14-21) Second part of the discourse, of equal compass with the first. Those who are thought to be immortal are laid low in Hades; whilst, on the other hand, those who cleave to God can hope to be redeemed by Him out of Hades. Olshausen complains on this passage that the expression is abrupt, rugged, and in part altogether obscure. The fault, however, lies not, as he thinks, in a serious corruption of the text, but in the style, designedly adopted, of Psalms like this of a gloomy turn. זה דרכּם refers back to Psa 49:13, which is the proper mashal of the Psalm: this is their way or walk (דּרך as in Psa 37:5, cf. Hag 1:5). Close upon this follows כּסל למו (their way), of those (cf. Psa 69:4) who possess self-confidence; כּסל signifies confidence both in a good and bad sense, self-confidence, impudence, and even (Ecc 7:25) in general, folly. The attributive clause is continued in Psa 49:14: and of those who after them (i.e., when they have spoken, as Hitzig takes it), or in a more universal sense: after or behind them (i.e., treading in their footsteps), have pleasure in their mouth, i.e., their haughty, insolent, rash words (cf. Jdg 9:38). If the meaning were "and after them go those who," etc., then one would expect to find a verb in connection with אחריהם (cf. Job 21:33). As a collateral definition, "after them = after their death," it would, however, without any reason, exclude the idea of the assent given by their contemporaries. It is therefore to be explained according to Job 29:22, or more universally according to Deu 12:30. It may seem remarkable that the music here strikes in forte; but music can on its part, in mournfully shrill tones, also bewail the folly of the world.

Psa 49:14, so full of eschatological meaning, now describes what becomes of the departed. The subject of שׁתּוּ (as in Psa 73:9, where it is Milra, for שׁתוּ) is not, as perhaps in the case of ἀπαιτοῦσιν, Luk 12:20, higher powers that are not named; but שׁוּת (here שׁתת), as in Psa 3:7, Hos 6:11; Isa 22:7, is used in a semi-passive sense: like a herd of sheep they lay themselves down or they are made to lie down לשׁאול (thus it is pointed by Ben-Asher; whereas Ben-Naphtali points לשׁאול, with a silent Sheb), to Hades = down into Hades (cf. Psa 88:7), so that they are shut up in it like sheep in their fold. And who is the shepherd there who rules these sheep with his rod? מות ירעם. Not the good Shepherd (Psa 23:1), whose pasture is the land of the living, but Death, into whose power they have fallen irrecoverably, shall pasture them. Death is personified, as in Job 18:14, as the king of terrors. The modus consecutivus, ויּרדּוּ, now expresses the fact that will be realized in the future, which is the reverse side of that other fact. After the night of affliction has swiftly passed away, there breaks forth, for the upright, a morning; and in this morning they find themselves to be lords over these their oppressors, like conquerors, who put their feet upon the necks of the vanquished (the lxx well renders it by κατακυριεύσουσιν). Thus shall it be with the upright, whilst the rich at their feet beneath, in the ground, are utterly destroyed. לבּקר has Rebia magnum, ישׁרים has Asla-Legarme; accordingly the former word does not belong to what follows (in the morning, then vanishes...), but to what precedes. צוּר or ציר (as in Isa 45:16) signifies a form or image, just as צוּרה (Arab. tsûrat) is generally used; properly, that which is pressed in or pressed out, i.e., primarily something moulded or fashioned by the pressure of the hand (as in the case of the potter, יצר) or by means of some instrument that impresses and cuts the material. Here the word is used to denote materiality or corporeity, including the whole outward appearance (φαντασία, Act 25:23). The לו which refers to this, shows that וצוּרם is not a contraction of וצוּרתם (vid., on Psa 27:5). Their materiality, their whole outward form belonging to this present state of being, becomes (falls away) לבלּות שׁאול. The Lamed is used in the same way as in היה לבער, Isa 6:13; and שׁאול is subject, like, e.g., the noun that follows the infinitive in Psa 68:19; Job 34:22. The same idea is obtained if it is rendered: and their form Hades is ready to consume (consumturus est); but the order of the words, though not making this rendering impossible (cf. Psa 32:9, so far as עדיו there means "its cheek"), is, however, less favourable to it (cf. Pro 19:8; Est 3:11). בּלּה was the most appropriate word for the slow, but sure and entire, consuming away (Job 13:28) of the dead body which is gnawed or destroyed in the grave, this gate of the lower world. To this is added מזּבל לו as a negative definition of the effect: so that there no longer remains to it, i.e., to the pompous external nature of the ungodly, any dwelling-place, and in general any place whatever; for whatever they had in and about themselves is destroyed, so that they wander to and fro as bare shadows in the dreary waste of Hades. To them, who thought to have built houses for eternity and called great districts of country after their own names, there remains no longer any זבל of this corporeal nature, inasmuch as Hades gradually and surely destroys it; it is for ever freed from its solid and dazzling shell, it wastes away lonesome in the grave, it perishes leaving no trace behind. Hupfeld's interpretation is substantially the same, and that of Jerome even is similar: et figura eorum conteretur in infero post habitaculum suum; and Symmachus: τὸ δὲ κρατερὸν αὐτῶν παλαιώσει ᾴδης ἀπὸ τῆς οἰκήσεως τῆς ἐντίμου αὐτῶν.

Other expositors, it is true, solve the riddle of the half-verse in a totally different way. Mendelssohn refers צוּרם to the upright: whose being lasts longer than the grave (survives it), hence it cannot be a habitation (eternal dwelling) to it; and adds, "the poet could not speak more clearly of the resurrection (immortality)."

(Note: In the fragments of a commentary to his translation of Psalms, contributed by David Friedlnder.)

A modern Jewish Christian, Isr. Pick, looked upon in Jerusalem as dead, sees here a prediction of the breaking through of the realm of the dead by the risen One: "Their Rock is there, to break through the realm of the dead, that it may no longer serve Him as an abode."

(Note: In a fugitive paper of the so-called Amen Congregation, which noo unhappily exists no longer, in Mnchen-Gladbach.)

Von Hofmann's interpretation (last of all in his Schriftbeweis ii. 2, 499, 2nd edition) lays claim to a more detailed consideration, because it has been sought to maintain it against all objections. By the morning he understands the end of the state or condition of death both of the righteous and of the ungodly. "In the state of death have they both alike found themselves: but now the dominion of death is at an end, and the dominion of the righteous beings." But those who have, according to Psa 49:15, died are only the ungodly, not the righteous as well. Hofmann then goes on to explain: their bodily form succumbs to the destruction of the lower world, so that it no longer has any abode; which is said to convey the thought, that the ungodly, "by means of the destruction of the lower world, to which their corporeal nature in common with themselves becomes subject, lose its last gloomy abode, but thereby lose their corporeal nature itself, which has now no longer any continuance:" "their existence becomes henceforth one absolutely devoid of possessions and of space, ["the exact opposite of the time when they possessed houses built for eternity, and broad tracts of country bore their name."] But even according to the teaching of the Old Testament concerning the last things, in the period after the Exile, the resurrection includes the righteous and the unrighteous (Dan 12:2); and according to the teaching of the New Testament, the damned, after Death and Hades are cast into the lake of fire, receive another זבול, viz., Gehenna, which stands in just the same relation to Hades as the transformed world does to the old heavens and the old earth. The thought discovered in Psa 49:15, therefore, will not bear being put to the proof. There is, however, this further consideration, that nothing whatever is known in any other part of the Old Testament of such a destruction of Shel; and לבלּות found in the Psalm before us would be a most inappropriate word to express it, instead of which it ought to have been לכלּות; for the figurative language in Psa 102:27; Isa 51:6, is worthless as a justification of this word, which signifies a gradual wearing out and using up or consuming, and must not, in opposition to the usage of the language, be explained according to עב and בּלי. For this reason we refrain from making this passage a locus classicus in favour of an eschatological conception which cannot be supported by any other passage in the Old Testament. On the other side, however, the meaning of לבּקר is limited if it be understood only of the morning which dawns upon the righteous one after the night of affliction, as Kurtz does. What is, in fact, meant is a morning which not merely for individuals, but for all the upright, will be the end of oppression and the dawn of dominion: the ungodly are totally destroyed, and they (the upright) now triumph above their graves. In these words is expressed, in the manner of the Old Testament, the end of all time. Even according to Old Testament conception human history closes with the victory of good over evil. So far Psa 49:15 is really a "riddle" of the last great day; expressed in New Testament language, of the resurrection morn, in which οἱ ἅγιοι τὸν κόσμον κρινοῦσι (Co1 6:2).

With אך, in Psa 49:16 (used here adversatively, as e.g., in Job 13:15, and as אכן is more frequently used), the poet contrasts the totally different lot that awaits him with the lot of the rich who are satisfied in themselves and unmindful of God. אך belongs logically to נפשׁי, but (as is moreover frequently the case with רק, גּם, and אף) is, notwithstanding this relation to the following member of the sentence, placed at the head of the sentence: yet Elohim will redeem my soul out of the hand of Shel (Psa 89:49; Hos 13:14). In what sense the poet means this redemption to be understood is shown by the allusion to the history of Enoch (Gen 5:24) contained in כּי יקּחני. Bttcher shrewdly remarks, that this line of the verse is all the more expressive by reason of its relative shortness. Its meaning cannot be: He will take me under His protection; for לקח does not mean this. The true parallels are Psa 73:24, Gen 5:24. The removals of Enoch and Elijah were, as it were, fingerposts which pointed forward beyond the cheerless idea they possessed of the way of all men, into the depth of Hades. Glancing at these, the poet, who here speaks in the name of all upright sufferers, gives expression to the hope, that God will wrest him out of the power of Sheפl and take him to Himself. It is a hope that possesses not direct word of God upon which it could rest; it is not until later on that it receives the support of divine promise, and is for the present only a "bold flight" of faith. Now can we, for this very reason, attempt to define in what way the poet conceived of this redemption and this taking to Himself. In this matter he himself has no fully developed knowledge; the substance of his hope is only a dim inkling of what may be. This dimness that is only gradually lighted up, which lies over the last things in the Old Testament, is the result of a divine plan of education, in accordance with which the hope of eternal life was gradually to mature, and to be born as it were out of this wrestling faith itself. This faith is expressed in Psa 49:16; and the music accompanies his confidence in cheerful and rejoicing strains.

After this, in Psa 49:17, there is a return from the lyric strain to the gnomic and didactic. It must not, with Mendelssohn, be rendered: let it (my soul) not be afraid; but, since the psalmist begins after the manner of a discourse: fear thou not. The increasing כבוד, i.e., might, abundance, and outward show (all these combined, from כּבד, grave esse), of the prosperous oppressor is not to make the saint afraid: he must after all die, and cannot take hence with him הכּל, the all = anything whatever (cf. לכּל, for anything whatever, Jer 13:7). כּי, Psa 49:17, like ἐάν, puts a supposable case; כּי, Psa 49:18, is confirmatory; and כּי, Psa 49:19, is concessive, in the sense of גּם־כּי, according to Ew. 362, b: even though he blessed his soul during his life, i.e., called it fortunate, and flattered it by cherished voluptuousness (cf. Deu 29:18, התבּרך בּנפשׁו, and the soliloquy of the rich man in Luk 12:19), and though they praise thee, O rich man, because thou dost enjoy thyself (Luk 16:25), wishing themselves equally fortunate, still it (the soul of such an one) will be obliged to come or pass עד־דּור אבותיו. There is no necessity for taking the noun דּור here in the rare signification dwelling (Arabic dâr, synonym of Menzı̂l), and it appears the most natural way to supply נפשׁו as the subject to תּבוא (Hofmann, Kurtz, and others), seeing that one would expect to find אבותיך in the case of תבוא being a form of address. And there is then no need, in order to support the synallage, which is at any rate inelegant, to suppose that the suffix יו-takes its rise from the formula אל־אבתיו (נאסף) בּוא, and is, in spite of the unsuitable grammatical connection, retained, just as יחדּו and כּלּם, without regard to the suffixes, signify "together" and "all together" (Bttcher). Certainly the poet delights in difficulties of style, of which quite sufficient remain to him without adding this to the list. It is also not clear whether Psa 49:20 is intended to be taken as a relative clause intimately attached to אבותיו, or as an independent clause. The latter is admissible, and therefore to be preferred: there are the proud rich men together with their fathers buried in darkness for ever, without ever again seeing the light of a life which is not a mere shadowy life.

The didactic discourse now closes with the same proverb as the first part, Psa 49:13. But instead of בּל־ילין the expression here used is ולא יבין, which is co-ordinate with בּיקר as a second attributive definition of the subject (Ew. 351, b): a man in glory and who has no understanding, viz., does not distinguish between that which is perishable and that which is imperishable, between time and eternity. The proverb is here more precisely expressed. The gloomy prospect of the future does not belong to the rich man as such, but to the worldly and carnally minded rich man.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Way - Their contrivance to immortalize themselves.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Their posterity approve their sayinys - Go the same way; adopt their maxims.

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⁶ For the LORD [03068] knoweth [03045] the way [01870] of the righteous [06662]: but the way [01870] of the ungodly [07563] shall perish [06].

¹³ This their way [01870] is their folly [03689]: yet their posterity [0310] approve [07521] their sayings [06310]. Selah [05542].

²⁰ Man [0120] that is in honour [03366], and understandeth [0995] not, is like [04911] the beasts [0929] that perish [01820].

²⁵ But [1161] Abraham [11] said [2036], Son [5043], remember [3415] that [3754] thou [4771] in [1722] thy [4675] lifetime [2222] receivedst [618] thy [4675] good things [18], and [2532] likewise [3668] Lazarus [2976] evil things [2556]: but [1161] now [3568] [3592] he is comforted [3870], and [1161] thou [4771] art tormented [3600].

¹⁹ And [2532] I will say [2046] to my [3450] soul [5590], Soul [5590], thou hast [2192] much [4183] goods [18] laid up [2749] for [1519] many [4183] years [2094]; take thine ease [373], eat [5315], drink [4095], and be merry [2165].

¹⁸ Lest there should be [03426] among you man [0376], or woman [0802], or family [04940], or tribe [07626], whose heart [03824] turneth away [06437] this day [03117] from the LORD [03068] our God [0430], to go [03212] and serve [05647] the gods [0430] of these nations [01471]; lest there should be [03426] among you a root [08328] that beareth [06509] gall [07219] and wormwood [03939];

¹⁹ He shall go [0935] to the generation [01755] of his fathers [01]; they shall never [03808] [05331] see [07200] light [0216].

¹⁸ Though while he lived [02416] he blessed [01288] his soul [05315]: and men will praise [03034] thee, when thou doest well [03190] to thyself.

¹⁷ For when he dieth [04194] he shall carry nothing away [03947]: his glory [03519] shall not descend [03381] after [0310] him.

⁷ Then I went [03212] to Euphrates [06578], and digged [02658], and took [03947] the girdle [0232] from the place [04725] where I had hid [02934] it: and, behold, the girdle [0232] was marred [07843], it was profitable [06743] for nothing.

¹⁷ For when he dieth [04194] he shall carry nothing away [03947]: his glory [03519] shall not descend [03381] after [0310] him.

¹⁶ Be not thou afraid [03372] when one [0376] is made rich [06238], when the glory [03519] of his house [01004] is increased [07235];

²⁴ And Enoch [02585] walked [01980] with God [0430]: and he was not; for God [0430] took [03947] him.

²⁴ Thou shalt guide [05148] me with thy counsel [06098], and afterward [0310] receive [03947] me to glory [03519].

²⁴ And Enoch [02585] walked [01980] with God [0430]: and he was not; for God [0430] took [03947] him.

¹⁴ I will ransom [06299] them from the power [03027] of the grave [07585]; I will redeem [01350] them from death [04194]: O death [04194], I will [0165] be thy plagues [01698]; O grave [07585], I will [0165] be thy destruction [06987]: repentance [05164] shall be hid [05641] from mine eyes [05869].

⁴⁹ Lord [0136], where are thy former [07223] lovingkindnesses [02617], which thou swarest [07650] unto David [01732] in thy truth [0530]?

¹⁵ Though [02005] he slay [06991] me, yet will I trust [03176] in him: but I will maintain [03198] mine own ways [01870] before [06440] him.

¹⁶ Be not thou afraid [03372] when one [0376] is made rich [06238], when the glory [03519] of his house [01004] is increased [07235];

² Do ye [1492] not [3756] know [1492] that [3754] the saints [40] shall judge [2919] the world [2889]? and [2532] if [1487] the world [2889] shall be judged [2919] by [1722] you [5213], are ye [2075] unworthy [370] to judge [2922] the smallest matters [1646]?

¹⁵ But God [0430] will redeem [06299] my soul [05315] from the power [03027] of the grave [07585]: for he shall receive [03947] me. Selah [05542].

⁶ Lift up [05375] your eyes [05869] to the heavens [08064], and look [05027] upon the earth [0776] beneath: for the heavens [08064] shall vanish away [04414] like smoke [06227], and the earth [0776] shall wax old [01086] like a garment [0899], and they that dwell [03427] therein shall die [04191] in like [03644] manner [03654]: but my salvation [03444] shall be for ever [05769], and my righteousness [06666] shall not be abolished [02865].

²⁷ But thou art the same, and thy years [08141] shall have no end [08552].

¹⁵ But God [0430] will redeem [06299] my soul [05315] from the power [03027] of the grave [07585]: for he shall receive [03947] me. Selah [05542].

² And many [07227] of them that sleep [03463] in the dust [06083] of the earth [0127] shall awake [06974], some to everlasting [05769] life [02416], and some to shame [02781] and everlasting [05769] contempt [01860].

¹⁵ But God [0430] will redeem [06299] my soul [05315] from the power [03027] of the grave [07585]: for he shall receive [03947] me. Selah [05542].

²⁸ And he, as a rotten thing [07538], consumeth [01086], as a garment [0899] that is moth [06211] eaten [0398].

¹¹ And the king [04428] said [0559] unto Haman [02001], The silver [03701] is given [05414] to thee, the people [05971] also, to do [06213] with them as it seemeth [05869] good [02896] to thee.

⁸ He that getteth [07069] wisdom [03820] loveth [0157] his own soul [05315]: he that keepeth [08104] understanding [08394] shall find [04672] good [02896].

⁹ Be ye not as the horse [05483], or as the mule [06505], which have no understanding [0995]: whose mouth [05716] must be held [01102] in with bit [04964] and bridle [07448], lest [01077] they come near [07126] unto thee.

²² There is no darkness [02822], nor shadow of death [06757], where the workers [06466] of iniquity [0205] may hide [05641] themselves.

¹⁹ Blessed [01288] be the Lord [0136], who daily [03117] [03117] loadeth [06006] us with benefits, even the God [0410] of our salvation [03444]. Selah [05542].

¹³ But yet in it shall be a tenth [06224], and it shall return [07725], and shall be eaten [01197]: as a teil tree [0424], and as an oak [0437], whose substance [04678] is in them, when they cast [07995] their leaves: so the holy [06944] seed [02233] shall be the substance [04678] thereof.

⁵ For in the time [03117] of trouble [07451] he shall hide [06845] me in his pavilion [05520]: in the secret [05643] of his tabernacle [0168] shall he hide [05641] me; he shall set me up [07311] upon a rock [06697].

²³ And on the morrow [1887], when [3767] Agrippa [67] was come [2064], and [2532] Bernice [959], with [3326] great [4183] pomp [5325], and [2532] was entered [1525] into [1519] the place of hearing [201], with [4862] [5037] the chief captains [5506], and [2532] principal [2596] [1851] men [435] of [5607] the city [4172], at [2532] Festus [5347]' commandment [2753] Paul [3972] was brought forth [71].

¹⁶ They shall be ashamed [0954], and also confounded [03637], all of them: they shall go [01980] to confusion [03639] together [03162] that are makers [02796] of idols [06736].

¹⁴ His confidence [04009] shall be rooted out [05423] of his tabernacle [0168], and it shall bring [06805] him to the king [04428] of terrors [01091].

¹ A Psalm [04210] of David [01732]. The LORD [03068] is my shepherd [07462]; I shall not want [02637].

⁷ Thy wrath [02534] lieth hard [05564] upon me, and thou hast afflicted [06031] me with all thy waves [04867]. Selah [05542].

⁷ And it shall come to pass, that thy choicest [04005] valleys [06010] shall be full [04390] of chariots [07393], and the horsemen [06571] shall set [07896] themselves in array [07896] at the gate [08179].

¹¹ Also, O Judah [03063], he hath set [07896] an harvest [07105] for thee, when I returned [07725] the captivity [07622] of my people [05971].

⁷ Arise [06965], O LORD [03068]; save [03467] me, O my God [0430]: for thou hast smitten [05221] all mine enemies [0341] upon the cheek bone [03895]; thou hast broken [07665] the teeth [08127] of the ungodly [07563].

²⁰ But [1161] God [2316] said [2036] unto him [846], Thou fool [878], this [5026] night [3571] thy [4675] soul [5590] shall be required [523] of [575] thee [4675]: then [1161] whose [5101] shall those things be [2071], which [3739] thou hast provided [2090]?

⁹ They set [08371] their mouth [06310] against the heavens [08064], and their tongue [03956] walketh [01980] through the earth [0776].

¹⁴ Like sheep [06629] they are laid [08371] in the grave [07585]; death [04194] shall feed [07462] on them; and the upright [03477] shall have dominion [07287] over them in the morning [01242]; and their beauty [06697] [06736] shall consume [01086] in the grave [07585] from their dwelling [02073].

³⁰ Take heed [08104] to thyself that thou be not snared [05367] by following [0310] them, after [0310] that they be destroyed [08045] from before [06440] thee; and that thou enquire [01875] not after their gods [0430], saying [0559], How did these nations [01471] serve [05647] their gods [0430]? even so will I do [06213] likewise [01571].

²² After [0310] my words [01697] they spake not again [08138]; and my speech [04405] dropped [05197] upon them.

³³ The clods [07263] of the valley [05158] shall be sweet [04985] unto him, and every man [0120] shall draw [04900] after [0310] him, as there are innumerable [04557] before [06440] him.

³⁸ Then said [0559] Zebul [02083] unto him, Where is now [0645] thy mouth [06310], wherewith thou saidst [0559], Who is Abimelech [040], that we should serve [05647] him? is not this the people [05971] that thou hast despised [03988]? go out [03318], I pray now [04994], and fight [03898] with them.

²⁵ I applied [05437] mine heart [03820] to know [03045], and to search [08446], and to seek out [01245] wisdom [02451], and the reason [02808] of things, and to know [03045] the wickedness [07562] of folly [03689], even of foolishness [05531] and madness [01947]:

⁴ They that hate [08130] me without a cause [02600] are more [07231] than the hairs [08185] of mine head [07218]: they that would destroy [06789] me, being mine enemies [0341] wrongfully [08267], are mighty [06105]: then I restored [07725] that which I took not away [01497].

⁵ Now therefore thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635]; Consider [07760] [03824] your ways [01870].

⁵ Commit [01556] thy way [01870] unto the LORD [03068]; trust [0982] also in him; and he shall bring it to pass [06213].

¹³ This their way [01870] is their folly [03689]: yet their posterity [0310] approve [07521] their sayings [06310]. Selah [05542].