This is the destiny of those who are foolish, and of those who approve their sayings. Selah.
Parallel translations
- KJV This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.
- BSB This is the fate of the self-confident and their followers who endorse their sayings. Selah
- NKJV This is the way of those who are foolish, And of their posterity who approve their sayings. Selah
- NASB ¶This is the way of those who are foolish, And of those after them who approve their words. Selah
- NLT This is the fate of fools, though they are remembered as being wise. Interlude
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
This self-confident folly is the destiny of those who trust riches and of all who applaud their outlook. They follow a doomed path.
Overview
The psalmist labels trusting in wealth as 'foolish' and notes that many approve and imitate this thinking. Their shared end is death without hope. The 'Selah' pause invites the hearer to consider whether they have unwittingly adopted this same folly, valuing possessions over God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- 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?’
- 1 Cor 3:19For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He has taken the wise in their craftiness.”
- Luke 16:27–28“He said, ‘I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father’s house;
- Jer 44:17But we will certainly perform every word that has gone out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.
- Luke 11:47–48Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
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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 49:13 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
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