Bible Browser

Psalm 49

1  Hear this, all you peoples; ♦︎
   listen, all you that dwell in the world,
2  You of low or high degree, ♦︎
   both rich and poor together.
3  My mouth shall speak of wisdom ♦︎
   and my heart shall meditate on understanding.
4  I will incline my ear to a parable; ♦︎
   I will unfold my riddle with the lyre.
5  Why should I fear in evil days, ♦︎
   when the malice of my foes surrounds me,
6  Such as trust in their goods ♦︎
   and glory in the abundance of their riches?
7  For no one can indeed ransom another ♦︎
   or pay to God the price of deliverance.
8  To ransom a soul is too costly; ♦︎
   there is no price one could pay for it,
9  So that they might live for ever, ♦︎
   and never see the grave.
10  For we see that the wise die also;
      with the foolish and ignorant they perish ♦︎
   and leave their riches to others.
11  Their tomb is their home for ever,
      their dwelling through all generations, ♦︎
   though they call their lands after their own names.
12  Those who have honour, but lack understanding, ♦︎
   are like the beasts that perish.
13  Such is the way of those who boast in themselves, ♦︎
   the end of those who delight in their own words.

24Do not envy the wicked,
   nor desire to be with them;
² for their minds devise violence,
   and their lips talk of mischief.

³ By wisdom a house is built,
   and by understanding it is established;
⁴ by knowledge the rooms are filled
   with all precious and pleasant riches.
⁵ Wise warriors are mightier than strong ones,^*
   and those who have knowledge than those who have strength;
⁶ for by wise guidance you can wage your war,
   and in abundance of counsellors there is victory.
⁷ Wisdom is too high for fools;
   in the gate they do not open their mouths.

⁸ Whoever plans to do evil
   will be called a mischief-maker.
⁹ The devising of folly is sin,
   and the scoffer is an abomination to all.

¹⁰ If you faint in the day of adversity,
   your strength being small;
¹¹ if you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death,
   those who go staggering to the slaughter;
¹² if you say, ‘Look, we did not know this’—
   does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?
   And will he not repay all according to their deeds?

The Old Life and the New

17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. ¹⁹They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practise every kind of impurity. ²⁰That is not the way you learned Christ! ²¹For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. ²²You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.