Psalms 49

World English Bible 89 include this book

1 Hear this, all you peoples. Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,

2 both low and high, rich and poor together.

3 My mouth will speak words of wisdom. My heart will utter understanding.

4 I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my riddle on the harp.

5 Why should I fear in the days of evil, when iniquity at my heels surrounds me?

6 Those who trust in their wealth, and boast in the multitude of their riches—

7 none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give God a ransom for him.

8 For the redemption of their life is costly, no payment is ever enough,

9 that he should live on forever, that he should not see corruption.

10 For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.

11 Their inward thought is that their houses will endure forever, and their dwelling places to all generations. They name their lands after themselves.

12 But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.

13 This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings. Selah.

14 They are appointed as a flock for Sheol. Death shall be their shepherd. The upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Their beauty shall decay in Sheol, far from their mansion.

15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. Selah.

16 Don’t be afraid when a man is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased;

17 for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him.

18 Though while he lived he blessed his soul— and men praise you when you do well for yourself—

19 he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.

20 A man who has riches without understanding, is like the animals that perish.

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28 places named in this book — no place is named in this chapter, so the whole book is shown.

Where this was written

Jerusalem traditional Assembled for temple worship over several centuries.

When this was written

The traditions broadly agree on this one.

Broad agreement: 1010 BC–400 BC David and many others
The Psalter is a collection assembled over centuries; individual psalms range widely in date.

Elsewhere in the world

Events overlapping the period this book is dated to (1010 BC–400 BC).

1200 BC–1000 BC Iron working spreads in the Levant Levant
Iron gradually displaced bronze for tools and weapons across the eastern Mediterranean.
1200 BC–400 BC Olmec civilisation Mesoamerica
The earliest major Mesoamerican civilisation, known for colossal stone heads and an early calendar.
1200 BC–600 BC Zoroaster teaches in Persia Persia
Founder of Zoroastrianism, whose dating is disputed by as much as six centuries. His teaching on a cosmic struggle between good and evil later touched Jewish and Christian thought.
1070 BC–350 AD The kingdom of Kush Africa
A Nubian power on the upper Nile that ruled Egypt itself as its twenty-fifth dynasty.
776 BC First recorded Olympiad Greece
The traditional starting point of Greek historical chronology.
753 BC Traditional founding of Rome Rome
The legendary date of Rome's founding, later used as the anchor of the Roman calendar.
745 BC–609 BC Neo-Assyrian empire at its height Mesopotamia
Assyria dominated the Near East, deporting conquered populations as policy, including the northern kingdom of Israel.
620 BC–560 BC Coinage invented in Lydia Anatolia
Stamped electrum coins of guaranteed weight, an idea that spread across the ancient world within a century.

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