The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Book of Psalms
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Psalm 48
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1
(To the choir-master. Of the sons of Core. A psalm.)
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Listen, you nations far and wide; let all the world give hearing,
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poor clods of earth, and men nobly born, for rich and poor the same lesson.
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Here are wise words, thoughts of a discerning heart;
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mine to overhear mysteries, and reveal, with the harp’s music, things of deep import.
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What need have I to be afraid in troubled times, when malice dogs my heels and overtakes me,
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malice of foes who trust in their own strength, and boast of their great possessions?
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No man can deliver himself from his human lot, paying a ransom-price to God;
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too great is the cost of a man’s soul; never will the means be his
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to prolong his days eternally and escape death.
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True it is, wise men die; but reckless fools perish no less; their riches will go to others,
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and the grave will be their everlasting home. Age after age, they will live on there, under the fields they once called their own.
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Short is man’s enjoyment of earthly goods; match him with the brute beasts, and he is no better than they.
14
Fatal path, that ensnares the reckless! Pitiful end of the men that love life!
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There they lie in the world beneath, huddled like sheep, with death for their shepherd, the just for their masters; soon, soon their image fades, the grave for its tenement.
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But my life God will rescue from the power of that lower darkness, a life that finds acceptance with him.
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Do not be disturbed, then, when a man grows rich, and there is no end to his household’s magnificence;
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he cannot take all that with him when he dies, magnificence will not follow him to the grave.
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While life lasts, he calls himself happy: None but will envy my success;
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but soon he will be made one with the line of his fathers, never again to see the light.
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Short is man’s careless enjoyment of earthly goods; match him with the brute beasts, and he is no better than they.
