High and low, rich and poor—listen!
Parallel translations
- WEB both low and high, rich and poor together.
- KJV Both low and high, rich and poor, together.
- BSB both low and high, rich and poor alike.
- NKJV Both low and high, Rich and poor together.
- NASB Both low and high, Rich and poor together.
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
Both the lowly and the great, rich and poor alike, are addressed. Death and the need for redemption level all distinctions.
Overview
The psalmist explicitly includes every social class because his message about wealth and mortality confronts all alike. The rich are warned not to trust their money, and the poor are comforted that worldly status is fleeting. This anticipates the gospel truth that all stand equal before God, equally needing the redemption He alone provides.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Ps 62:9Surely men of low degree are just a breath, and men of high degree are a lie. In the balances they will go up. They are together lighter than a breath.
- Jas 2:1–7My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ of glory with partiality.
- Prov 22:2The rich and the poor have this in common: Yahweh is the maker of them all.
- 1 Sam 2:7–8Yahweh makes poor, and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up.
- Job 34:19Who doesn’t respect the persons of princes, nor respects the rich more than the poor; for they all are the work of his hands.
- Jer 5:4–5Then I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; for they don’t know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God.
- Rev 6:15–17The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.
- Jas 1:9–11But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
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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 49:2 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.