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Psalm 49:20

A man who has riches without understanding, is like the animals that perish.

18Though while he lived he blessed his soul— and men praise you when you do well for yourself—
19he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.
20A man who has riches without understanding, is like the animals that perish.
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← Psalm 49:19
Notice

Riches and understanding come apart in this sentence, and the comparison with animals strips wealth of any power to shelter a person from death.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

Where does praise for doing well for yourself shape what you count as a good life?

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How does the comparison with animals challenge what you expect wealth to secure?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 49:12But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.Both verses compare a rich person to animals that perish; verse 20 adds the lack of understanding.
Ecclesiastes 3:19For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one …Both texts compare human death with animal death, exposing a shared mortality that human advantage cannot undo.
Job 4:21Isn’t their tent cord plucked up within them? They die, and that without wisdom.’Both texts join death with a lack of wisdom or understanding, describing lives that end without it.
Ecclesiastes 3:18–19I said in my heart, “As for the sons of men, God tests them, so that they may see that they themselves are like animals.Both texts compare people with animals; Ecclesiastes describes God testing people so they see that likeness.
Daniel 4:30The king spoke and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?”The shared thread is limited to human greatness: the psalm names riches, while the king boasts of his power and majesty.
Esther 7:10So they hanged Haman on the gallows that he had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king’s wrath was pacified.Both passages speak of death; Esther names Haman’s execution, while the psalm compares a rich person without understanding to perishing animals.
Isaiah 14:10They all will answer and ask you, “Have you also become as weak as we are? Have you become like us?”Both passages describe a leveling: riches cannot prevent perishing, and Isaiah’s addressed figure has become as weak as those speaking.
Psalm 73:18–19Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.Both passages describe an end in destruction, though Psalm 73 names God as the one who brings it about.
Esther 5:11–14Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him …Riches feature in both passages; Haman recounts his wealth and rank, while the psalm warns that wealth can exist without understanding.
Where this verse fits

Envy and comparison. death and what comes after.

What the Bible says about death →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Compare verses 12 and 20; note what changes

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Encouragement

The warning is worth hearing even when others praise your success. Riches can coexist with a lack of understanding, and they cannot keep death away.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 49:20. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).