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¹ Hear this, all ye peoples;
Give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world,
² Both low and high,
Rich and poor together.
³ My mouth shall speak wisdom;
And the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding.
⁴ I will incline mine ear to a parable:
I will open my dark saying upon the harp.
⁵ Wherefore should I fear in the days of evil,
When ^[a]iniquity at my heels compasseth me about?
⁶ They that trust in their wealth,
And boast themselves in the multitude of their riches;
⁷ None of them can by any means redeem his brother,
Nor give to God a ransom for him
⁸ (For the redemption of their life is costly,
And it faileth for ever),
⁹ That he should still live alway,
That he should not see ^[b]corruption.
¹⁰ For ^[c]he shall see it. Wise men die;
The fool and the brutish alike perish,
And leave their wealth to others.
¹¹ Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever,
And their dwelling-places to all generations;
They call their lands after their own names.
¹² But man being in honor abideth not:
He is like the beasts that perish.

¹³ This ^[d]their way is ^[e]their folly:
Yet after them men approve their sayings. Selah
¹⁴ They are appointed as a flock for Sheol;
Death shall be their shepherd:
And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning;
And their ^[f]beauty shall be for Sheol to consume,
That there be no habitation for it.
¹⁵ But God will redeem my soul from the ^[g]power of Sheol;
For he will receive me. Selah
¹⁶ Be not thou afraid when one is made rich,
When the ^[h]glory of his house is increased:
¹⁷ For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away;
His glory shall not descend after him.
¹⁸ Though while he lived he blessed his soul
(And men praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself),
^19 [i]He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
^[j]They shall never see the light.
²⁰ Man that is in honor, and understandeth not,
Is like the beasts that perish.