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