Psalms 49:12
in Psalms 49But a man, despite his wealth, cannot endure; he is like the beasts that perish.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
But man being in honor abideth not: He is like the beasts that perish.
KJV
Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.
⋯
This verse in Psalms 49
Commentary
17 notes on this verseNevertheless man being in honour abideth not,.... Or Adam: and some understand this of the first man Adam, who was created and crowned with glory and honour; but it did not abide with him, nor he in that: so some Jewish writers (y) interpret it.
This site's exposition
wise men die
on Psalms 49:10-13
Wise men die, and so do the foolish and the senseless, and all of them leave their wealth to others. They took their graves for eternal homes and their lands carried their names, yet a man's wealth cannot keep him. He is like the beasts that perish.
This site's exposition
cannot endure
A man in all his wealth passes like a guest. Barnes noted that the Hebrew for endure means to lodge for a night, and he will soon pass away. Henry called the world an inn where the rich man scarcely gets a night's lodging.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
"And man though he was in honour perceived not, he was compared to the beasts without sense, and was made like to them." ...They ought, on the contrary, to have made ready for themselves an eternal house in good works, to have made ready for themselves everlasting life, to have sent before them expenditure, to have followed their works, to have ministered to a needy companion, to have given to him with whom they were walking, not to have despised Christ covered with sores before their gate, who hath said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." However, "man being in honour hath not understood." What is, "being in honour"? Being made after the image and likeness of God, man is preferred to beasts. For God hath not so made man as He made a beast: but God hath made man for beasts to minister to: is it to his strength then, and not to his understanding? Nay. But he "understood not;" and he who was made after the image of God, "is compared to the beasts without sense, and is made like unto them." Whence it is said elsewhere, "Be ye not like to horse and mule, in which there is no understanding."
For as a snake does not creep on with open steps, but advances by the very minutest efforts of its several scales; so the slippery motion of falling away [from what is good] takes possession of the negligent only gradually, and beginning from a perverse desire for the likeness of God, arrives in the end at the likeness of beasts. Hence it is that being naked of their first garment, they earned by mortality coats of skins. For the true honor of man is the image and likeness of God, which is not preserved except it be in relation to Him by whom it is impressed. The less therefore that one loves what is one's own, the more one cleaves to God. But through the desire of making trial of his own power, man by his own bidding falls down to himself as to a sort of intermediate grade. And so, while he wishes to be as God is, that is, under no one, he is thrust on, even from his own middle grade, by way of punishment, to that which is lowest, that is, to those things in which beasts delight: and thus, while his honor is the likeness of God, but his dishonor is the likeness of the beast, "Man being in honor abideth not: he is compared to the beasts that are foolish, and is made like to them." By what path, then, could he pass so great a distance from the highest to the lowest, except through his own intermediate grade? […]
With regard, however, to the passage in the inspired psalm, "Man, being in honour, understandeth not; he is compared to the senseless cattle, and is like unto them;" read and understand these words, that you may rather with a humble spirit guard against the opprobrium yourself, than arrogantly throw it out against another person. The passage applies to those who regard only that as a life worth living which they live in the flesh-having no hope after death-just like "cattle;" it has no reference to those who never deny their knowledge of what they actually know, and always acknowledge their ignorance of what they really do not know; who, in point of fact, are aware of their weakness, rather than confident of their strength.
Despite having so much enjoyment in the present life, possessing many natural advantages by comparison with other living creatures and enjoying a great number of gifts, they did not understand the greatness of the honor conferred on them by God; instead, by their insensitivity to …
Humankind, then, having been advanced above other created things in honor, did not understand and neglected to follow God and to become like the Creator. Becoming a slave of the passions of the flesh, "he is compared with senseless beasts and is become like them": now he is like an amorous horse that neighs after his neighbor's wife, now like a ravenous wolf, lying in wait for strangers, but at another time, because of his deceit toward his brother, he makes himself like the villainous fox.
9 more voices on this verse
The Church Fathers1 voice
David wept for Adam, at how he fell from that royal abode to the abode of wild animals. Because he went astray through a beast he became like the beasts. He ate, together with them as a result of the curse, grass and roots, and …
The Medieval Church2 voices
"And man." Above, the Psalmist set forth the evils that threaten the wicked with respect to the loss of exterior goods; here, however, he sets forth those that threaten them from the corruption of interior goods. And concerning this he does two things. First, he …
The honour belonging to rational nature is the discernment that tells good from evil, and those who have destroyed it are justly compared to "mindless cattle," which have no rational and discerning faculty.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
His honour does not continue; that is a fleeting shadow. He himself does not, he tarries not all night; this world is an inn, in which his stay is so short that he can scarcely be said to get a night's lodging in it; so little rest is there in these things; he has but a baiting time.
The Nineteenth Century5 voices
Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not. He is but a lodger for the hour, and does not stay a night: even when he dwells in marble halls his notice to quit is written out. Eminence is evermore in imminence of peril. The hero of the hour lasts but for an hour. Sceptres fall from the paralysed hands which once grasped them, and coronets slip away from skulls when the life is departed. He is like the beasts that perish.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Contrasted with this vanity is their frailty. However honored, man abideth not--literally, "lodgeth not," remains not till morning, but suddenly perishes as (wild) beasts, whose lives are taken without warning.
Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not. He is but a lodger for the hour, and does not stay a night: even when he dwells in marble halls his notice to quit is written out. Eminence is evermore in imminence of peril. The hero of the hour lasts but for an hour. Sceptres fall from the paralysed hands which once grasped them, and coronets slip away from skulls when the life is departed. He is like the beasts that perish. He is not like the sheep which are preserved of the Great Shepherd, but like the hunted beast which is doomed to die. He lives a brutish life and dies a brutish death. Wallowing in riches, surfeited with pleasure, he is fatted for the slaughter, and dies like the ox in the shambles. Alas! that so noble a creature should use his life so unworthily, and end it so disgracefully. So far as this world is concerned, wherein does the death of many men differ from the death of a dog? They go down— What room is there, then, for fear to the godly when such natural brute beasts assail them? Should they not in patience possess their souls? We make a break here, because this stanza appears to be the refrain of the song, and as such is repeated in Ps 49:20.
Man being in honor abideth not - However rich, wise, or honorable, they must die; and if they die not with a sure hope of eternal life, they die like beasts. See on Psa 49:20 (note).
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Nevertheless, man being in honor abideth not - No matter to what rank he may rise, no matter how much wealth he may accumulate, no matter how fixed and secure he may seem to make his possessions, he cannot make them permanent and enduring. He must pass away and leave all this to others. The word rendered “abideth” - ילין yālı̂yn - means properly to pass the night; to remain over night; to lodge, as one does for a night; and the idea is, that he is not to lodge or remain permanently in that condition; or, more strictly, he will not lodge there even for a night; that is, he will soon pass away. It is possible that the Saviour had his eye on this passage in the parable of the rich fool, and especially in the declaration, “This night thy soul shall be required of thee,” Luk 12:20. He is like the beasts that perish - He is like the beasts; they perish. This does not mean that in all respects he is like them, but only in this respect, that he must die as they do; that he cannot by his wealth make himself immortal. He must pass away just as if he were an animal of the inferior creation, and had no power of accumulating wealth, or of laying plans that stretch into the future. The squirrel and the beaver - animals that “lay up” something, or that, like people, have the power of “accumulating,” die just like other animals. So the rich “man.” His intelligence, his high hopes, his far-reaching schemes, make no difference between him and his fellow-men and the brute in regard to death. They all die alike.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
In their heart, their houses are forever Their thoughts are to build for themselves houses that will exist forever.
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
For he sees that wise men die and are not saved from death. So, perforce, he stops wearying himself and toiling for his brother’s ransom.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְאָדָ֣ם | veadam | and humankind | H120 → | 551 times |
| בִּ֭יקָר | bikor | in honor | H3366 → | |
| בַּל־ | bal- | not | H1077 → | 73 times |
| יָלִ֑ין | yalin | he remains | H3885 → | 84 times |
| נִמְשַׁ֖ל | nimshal | he is like | H4911 → | 16 times |
| כַּבְּהֵמ֣וֹת | kabehemot | like the animals | H929 → | 190 times |
| נִדְמֽוּ׃ | nidmu | [which] they are destroyed | H1820 → |
וְאָדָ֣םand humankind
veadamH120 →551 times
בִּ֭יקָרin honor
bikorH3366 →
בַּל־not
bal-H1077 →73 times
יָלִ֑יןhe remains
yalinH3885 →84 times
נִמְשַׁ֖לhe is like
nimshalH4911 →16 times
כַּבְּהֵמ֣וֹתlike the animals
kabehemotH929 →190 times
נִדְמֽוּ׃[which] they are destroyed
nidmuH1820 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 39:5You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah
it leads to
- Psalms 144:4
Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.
- Psalms 89:47
Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!
- Psalms 90:9–10
For all our days decline in Your fury; we finish our years with a sigh.
- Psalms 62:9
Lowborn men are but a vapor, the exalted but a lie. Weighed on the scale, they go up; together they are but a vapor.
- Ecclesiastes 2:11
Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to…
- Psalms 144:4
Through
Ecclesiastes 9:12For surely no man knows his time: Like fish caught in a cruel net or birds trapped in a snare, so men are ensnared in an evil time that suddenly falls upon them.
it leads to
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3
While people are saying, “Peace and security,” destruction will come upon them suddenly, like labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
- Luke 21:34–36
But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:3
Through
Psalms 82:7But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.”
it leads to
- Ezekiel 31:14
This happened so that no other trees by the waters would become great in height and set their tops among the clouds, and no other well-watered trees would reach them in height. For they…
- Ezekiel 31:14
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Psalms
This page draws on 16 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 49; Augustine of Hippo, On The Trinity, Book 12; Augustine of Hippo, On the Soul and Its Origin, Book 4; Basil of Caesarea, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 19:8 (PS 49); Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 2; Ephrem the Syrian, HYMNS ON PARADISE 13:5; Isaac of Nineveh, ASCETICAL HOMILIES 47; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Theodore of Mopsuestia, COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 49:13 and Thomas Aquinas, Exposition on the Psalms of David.