Psalms 49:12

Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
man	וְאָדָ֣ם ve.'a.Dam	H120	ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
honour	בִּ֭יקָר Bi.kor	H3366	value · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
abideth	יָלִ֑ין ya.Lin	H3885	to stop (usually over night) · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
like	נִמְשַׁ֖ל nim.Shal	H4911	to liken · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
beasts	כַּבְּהֵמ֣וֹת ka.be.he.Mot	H929	properly · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
perish	נִדְמֽוּ nid.Mu	H1820	to be dumb or silent · verb, niphal perfect, 3rd person common plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Ecclesiastes 3:18-21 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves ar…
Psalms 39:5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether v…
Psalms 49:20 Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
Psalms 82:7 But ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes.
Ecclesiastes 9:12 For man also knoweth not his time: as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare; so are the so…
James 1:10-11 But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 49:6-14

In these verses we have, I. A description of the spirit and way of worldly people, whose portion is in this life, Psa 17:14. It is taken for granted that they have wealth, and a multitude of riches (Psa 49:6), houses and lands of inheritance, which they call their own, Psa 49:11. God often gives abundance of the good things of this world to bad men who live in contempt of him and rebellion against him, by which it appears that they are not the best things in themselves (for then God would give most of them to his best friends), and that they are not the best things for us, for then those would not have so much of them who, being marked for ruin, are to be ripened for it by their prosperity,…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 49:12

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.

John Gill on Psalms 49:12

Nevertheless 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. But whether the words will admit of this sense or not, the general view of the psalmist, which is to show the inconstancy and instability of worldly honour, may be exemplified in the case of the first man; he was in honour he was created after the image and likeness of God, and so was the glory of God, being his image; he was in friendship with God, as many instances show, and had dominion over all the creatures below; he had much knowledge of God, a…

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John Calvin on Psalms 49:10-12

Psalm 49:10-12 10. For he shall see that wise men die, the fool and the brutish person shall perish together, and shall leave their wealth to strangers. 11. Their inward thought is their houses for ever, [219] and their dwelling-places to all generations; they have called out their names upon the earth. 12. And man shall not abide in honour; he has become like the beasts: they perish. 10 For he shall see that wise men die. I consider the ninth and tenth verses to be connected, and that it is the intention of the Psalmist to censure the folly of those who dream of spending an eternity in this world, and set themselves seriously to establish a permanent settlement in it, though they cannot b…

The Church Fathers

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.
— Isaac of Nineveh, ASCETICAL HOMILIES 47

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 he died, becoming their peer. Blessed is he who set him apart from the wild animals again.
— Ephrem the Syrian, HYMNS ON PARADISE 13:5

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 the possession of their attributes they are no different from cattle, which possess no intelligence.… While giving little heed to thanking the giver, they live a heedless life and grow old in their sins. Thus, they also are the objects of a rigorous verdict from God.
— Theodore of Mopsuestia, COMMENTARY ON PSALMS 49:13

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Glory — (Heb. kabhod; Gr. doxa). (1.) Abundance, wealth, treasure, and hence honour (Ps. 49:12); glory (Gen. 31:1; Matt. 4:8; Rev. 21:24, 26). (2.) Honour, dignity (1 Kings 3:13; Heb. 2:7 1 Pet. 1:24); of…
Ambition · Vanity of — Vanity of
Animals · Nature ofJob 39; — Nature ofJob 39;
B · Described as: Devoid of immortality — Described as: Devoid of immortality
Wicked (People) · .Animals — .Animals
Wicked, The, Are Compared To · Beasts — Beasts

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Psalms 49:12

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 49:6-14

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 49:12

John Gill on Psalms 49:12

John Calvin on Psalms 49:10-12

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Psalms 49:12

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Psalms 49:6-14

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Psalms 49:12

John Gill on Psalms 49:12

John Calvin on Psalms 49:10-12

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Keil & Delitzsch on Psalms 49:5-12

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Psalms 49:11-12

Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 49:12