“Beware of every desire to possess, for even when one has everything, it is not possessions which give life.”
1* 2Hear this, all you peoples!
Listen, all you inhabitants of the world,
3high and low together,
rich and poor alike!
4My mouth will speak wisdom,
my deep thoughts will bring discernment.
5To a proverb I will incline my ear,
and solve my riddle to the rhythm of my lyre.
6Why should I fear when evil days come,
when wicked deceivers ring me round –
7those who trust in their wealth
and boast of their great riches?
8For no ransom avails for one’s life,
there is no price one can give to God for it.
9For redeeming one’s life
demands too high a price,
and all is lost forever.
10Who can remain forever alive
and never see the grave?
11For we see that the wise die,
and pass away like the fool and the stupid
leaving to others their fortune and wealth.
12Their graves are their eternal homes,
from generation to generation,
no matter how big the tracts of land they own.
13People of wealth have no thought,
they will be silenced like the beasts.
14This is the fate of people trusting themselves,
the future of those who rely on their strength.
15Like sheep led to the grave,
they have death as their shepherd and ruler;
quickly their form will be consumed
in the world of the dead, which is their home.
16But God will rescue my soul from the grave
by receiving me unto himself.
17Fear not when someone grows rich,
when his power becomes oppressively great,
18for nothing will he take when he dies;
his wealth and pomp he will leave behind.
19Though he praised himself in his lifetime,
“All will say that I have enjoyed life,”
20he will join the generation of his forebears,
who will never again see the light.
21People of wealth have no thought,
they will be silenced like the beasts.
