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Those who are wise must finally die, just like the foolish and senseless, leaving all their wealth behind.
Psalms 49:10 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB For he sees that wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless perish, and leave their wealth to others.
  • KJV For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
  • BSB For it is clear that wise men die, and the foolish and the senseless both perish and leave their wealth to others.
  • NKJV For he sees wise men die; Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish, And leave their wealth to others.
  • NASB ¶For he sees that even wise people die; The foolish and the stupid alike perish And leave their wealth to others.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Everyone sees that wise and foolish alike die, leaving their wealth to others. Death spares no one.

Overview

The plain observation that the wise, the fool, and the brutish all perish reinforces death's universality. Whatever a person accumulates passes to others at death. This echoes Ecclesiastes' theme that one cannot take wealth beyond the grave, exposing the futility of living for possessions.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 19

  • Ps 39:6“Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.
  • Luke 12:20“But God said to him, ‘You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared — whose will they be?’
  • Eccl 5:13–16There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: wealth kept by its owner to his harm.
  • 1 Tim 6:6–10But godliness with contentment is great gain.
  • Heb 9:27Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
  • Jer 10:8But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
  • Prov 30:2“Surely I am the most ignorant man, and don’t have a man’s understanding.
  • Ps 73:22I was so senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you.
  • Ps 49:17for when he dies he will carry nothing away. His glory won’t descend after him.
  • Prov 11:4Riches don’t profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
  • Eccl 2:26For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
  • Ps 94:8Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you be wise?
  • Ps 17:14from men by your hand, Yahweh, from men of the world, whose portion is in this life. You fill the belly of your cherished ones. Your sons have plenty, and they store up wealth for their children.
  • Prov 12:1Whoever loves correction loves knowledge, but he who hates reproof is stupid.
  • Ps 92:6–7A senseless man doesn’t know, neither does a fool understand this:
  • Eccl 9:1–2For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.
  • Eccl 2:16–21For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!
  • Rom 5:12–14Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
  • Jer 17:11As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the middle of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (1)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Psalms videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Psalms 49:10YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on PsalmsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.

Christ at the center

The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.

How Psalms 49:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.