Psalms 49:13

This their way [is] their folly,.... This their last end becoming like the beasts that perish, which is the issue and event of all their confidence, ambition, and honour, shows the folly of their

This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.

This their way, i.e. their counsel and contrivance to immortalize themselves. Is their folly; though to themselves and some otters it seem to be wisdom, yet in truth it is apparent folly and madness. For they neither obtain that immortal name which they seek and hope for; nor, if they do, doth it yield them any comfort or benefit. Their sayings, Heb. their mouth, i.e. their counsels and suggestions, which they gave them concerning these matters. The mouth is oft put for the words which come out of it, as .

Psalms 49:13 This their way [is] their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.Ver. 13. This their way is their folly] This their fond conceit of an immortality is an egregious folly, fully confuted by every day’ s experience; for the longest lived person dies at last, as did (beside the antediluvian patriarchs) Joannes de Ternporibus, armour bearer to Charles the Great, who died A.D. 1139, aged three hundred sixty-one years (Asted’ s Chronol. 475). So the old man of Bengala, in the East Indies, who was three hundred and thirty-five years old when he came to the Portugals, from whom, for his miraculous age, he received a yearly stipend till he died (Naucler. Purehas. Pilg., p. 481). He that lived in our days till one hundred and fifty years, or thereabouts, yielded at length to nature; and yet men dote and dream still of an immortality. The first doom that ever was denouneed was death, "Thou shalt surely die"; and the first doubt that ever was made was concerning death, "Ye shall not surely die"; ever since which time there is something of the spawn of that old serpent left in our natures, prompting us to doubt of that whereof there is the greatest certainty; and although every man granteth that he shall die, yet there is scarce any man that futureth not his death, and thinketh that he may live yet, and yet, and so long: this is folly in a high degree, and we should be sensible of it, labouring to become neither fond of life nor afraid of death. &&&Longevity-Long lived men Yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah] Heb. delight in their mouth, are as wise as their ancestors, tread in their track, take up their inward thoughts, Psalms 49:11, observe the same lying vanities, and so forsake their own mercies, Jonah 2:8. Selah, q.d. O wonderful, for, see the issue of their folly.

(13) This their way—i.e., the folly mentioned in the (amended) preceding verse, and described in Psalms 49:11. Is their folly—i.e., is a way of folly.

Verse 13. Their posterity approve their sayings.] Go the same way; adopt their maxims.

13–15. The fate of the godless rich man is further described, and contrasted with the Psalmist’s confidence.

This their way is their folly - This might be rendered, “This is their way or course of life. It is their folly;” or, such is their folly. On the word “way,” see the notes at Psalms 1:6.

13. Learning no higher wisdom by observation, their posterity eulogize the example of their fathers and perpetuate their folly.