Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 49:14
Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
14. Like sheep are they put into Sheol;
Death shepherdeth them;
And the upright have dominion over them in the morning,
And their form shall Sheol consume, that it have no more habitation.
What becomes of the wicked? They are driven down to Sheol like a flock of sheep, mere animals that they are ( Psa 49:12); there Death is their shepherd: the king of terrors rules them at his will. They perish in the night, and in the morning the righteous awake, triumphant over their fallen oppressors. The night of trouble is over; the morning of deliverance has dawned (Psa 30:5). But what is meant by ‘the morning’? Not, as yet, the resurrection morning; but the morning of the day which Jehovah is making, in which “all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be as stubble and ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do make, saith the Lord of hosts” (Mal 4:1; Mal 4:3): a day in the history of the world corresponding to the day when the restored Israel “shall rule over their oppressors” (Isa 14:2). Comp. Psa 104:35, and Psalms 37.
The precise meaning of the last line is doubtful and the text possibly corrupt. Their form, or perhaps, their beauty, is delivered up to Sheol to consume: a poetical way of expressing that their bodies moulder in the grave: all that made such a brave show upon earth has no more existence, no longer needs any abode. Possibly we should make a slight change in the text, and render, Their form shall be consumed, Sheol shall be their habitation. Cp. A.V. marg.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Like sheep they are laid in the grave – The allusion here is to a flock as driven forward by the shepherd; and the meaning is that they are driven forward to the grave, as it were, in flocks, or as a flock of sheep is driven by a shepherd. The word rendered are laid – satu – is probably not derived from the verb suth, or syth, as our translators seem to have supposed, but from sathath, to set, or place; and the meaning is, Like sheep they put them in Sheol, or the grave; that is, they thrust or drive them down there. In other words, this is done, without intimating by whom it is done. They are urged forward; they are driven toward the tomb as a flock of sheep is driven forward to the slaughter. Some influence or power is pressing them in masses down to the grave. The word rendered grave is Sheol. It is sometimes used in the sense of the grave, and sometimes as referring to the abode of departed spirits. See Job 10:21-22, note; Psa 6:5, note. It seems here to be used in the former sense.
Death shall feed on them – The word rendered feed here – raah – means properly to feed a flock; to pasture; then, to perform the office of a shepherd. The idea here is not, as in our translation, death shall feed on them; but, death shall rule over them as the shepherd rules his flock. The allusion to the flock suggested this. They are driven down to the grave, or to Sheol. The shepherd, the ruler, he who does this, is death; and the idea is not that death is a hungry monster, devouring them in the grave, but that the shepherd over that flock, instead of being a kind and gentle friend and protector (as the word shepherd naturally suggests), is death – a fearful and grim Ruler of the departed. The idea, therefore, is not that of feeding, specifically, but it is that of ruling, controlling, guiding. So the Septuagint, thanatos poimanei autous. The Vulgate, however, renders it, mors depascet eos; and Luther, der Tod naget sie; death gnaws or feeds on them.
And the upright – The just; the righteous. The meaning of this part of the verse undoubtedly is, that the just or pious would have some kind of ascendancy or superiority over them at the period here referred to as the morning.
Shall have dominion over them – Or rather, as DeWette renders it, shall triumph over them. That is, will be exalted over them; or shall have a more favored lot. Though depressed now, and though crushed by the rich, yet they will soon have a more exalted rank, and a higher honor than those who, though once rich, are laid in the grave tinder the dominion of death.
In the morning – That is, very soon; tomorrow; when the morning dawns after the darkness of the present. See the notes at Psa 30:5. There is a time coming – a brighter time – when the relative condition of the two classes shall be changed, and when the upright – the pious – though poor and oppressed now, shall be exalted to higher honors than they will be. There is no certain evidence that this refers to the morning of the resurrection; but it is language which well expresses the idea when connected with that doctrine, and which can be best explained on the supposition that that doctrine was referred to, and that the hope of such a resurrection was cherished by the writer. Indeed, when we remember that the psalmist expressly refers to the grave in regard to the rich, it is difficult to explain the language on any other supposition than that he refers here to the resurrection – certainly not as well as on this supposition – and especially when it is remembered that death makes no distinction in cutting down people, whether they are righteous or wicked. Both are laid in the grave alike, and any prospect of distinction or triumph in the case must be derived from scenes beyond the grave. This verse, therefore, may belong to that class of passages in the Old Testament which are founded on the belief of the resurrection of the dead without always expressly affirming it, and which are best explained on the supposition that the writers of the Old Testament were acquainted with that doctrine, and drew their hopes as well as their illustrations from it. Compare Dan 12:2; Isa 26:19; Psa 16:9-10.
And their beauty – Margin, strength. The Hebrew word means form, shape, image; and the idea here is, that their form or figure will be changed, or disappear, to wit, by consuming away. The idea of beauty, or strength, is not necessarily in the passage, but the meaning is, that the form or figure which was so familiar among people will be dissolved, and disappear in the grave.
Shall consume in the grave – Hebrew, in Sheol. The word probably means here the grave. The original word rendered consume, means literally to make old; to wear out; to waste away. The entire form of the man will disappear.
From their dwelling – Margin, the grave being a habitation to every one of them. Septuagint, and their help shall grow old in the grave from their glory. So the Latin Vulgate. The whole expression is obscure. The most probable meaning is, they shall consume in the grave, from its being a dwelling to him; that is, to each of them. Sheol, or the grave, becomes a dwelling to the rich man, and in that gloomy abode – that which is now his dwelling – he consumes away. It pertains to that dwelling, or it is one of the conditions of residing there, that all consume away and disappear. Others render it, so that there is no dwelling or habitation for them. Others, and this is the more common interpretation, their form passes away, the underworld is their habitation. See DeWette in loc. This last rendering requires a slight change in the punctuation of the original. DeWette, Note, p. 339. The general idea in the passage is plain, that the possessors of wealth are soon to find their home in the grave, and that their forms, with all on which they valued themselves, are soon to disappear.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 49:14
Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them!
Two shepherds and two flocks
(with Rev 7:17):–These two verses have a much closer parallelism in expression than appears in A.. The R.V. renders the former of my texts, Death shall be their shepherd, and the latter, The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd. The Old Testament psalmist and the blew Testament seer have fallen upon the same image to describe death and the future, but with how different a use! The one paints a grim picture, all sunless and full of shadow; the other dips his pencil in brilliant colours, and suffuses his canvas with a glow as of molten sunlight. The one is speaking of men whose portion is in this life, the other of men who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
I. The grim picture drawn by the psalmist.
1. Death a shepherd! What a grim and bold inversion of a familiar metaphor! Death is their shepherd. Yes, but what kind of a shepherd? Not one that gently leads his flock, but one that stalks behind the huddled sheep, and drives them fiercely, club in hand, on a path on which they would not willingly go. The unwelcome necessity, by which men that have their portion in this world are hounded and herded out of all their sunny pastures and abundant feeding, is the thought that underlies the image. Ask yourself the question, Is the course of my life such as that the end of it shall be like that?–a grim necessity which I would do anything to avoid.
2. This first text suggests not only a shepherd, but a fold. Like sheep they are thrust down to the grave. He does not mean either the place where the body is deposited, or a place where there is punitive retribution for the wicked, but he means a dim region, or, if I might so say, a localized condition, in which all that have passed through life are gathered, where personality and consciousness continue, but where life is faint, stripped of all that characterizes it here; shadowy, unsubstantial, and where, according to the metaphor, there is inactivity, absolute cessation of all the occupations to which men were accustomed. But there may be restlessness along with inactivity; may there not? And there is no such restlessness as the restlessness of compulsory idleness. That is the main idea that is in the psalmists mind.
3. The kind of men whom the grim shepherd drives into that grim fold. The psalmist is speaking of men who have their portion in this life. Of every such man he says, when he dieth he shall carry nothing away–none of the possessions, none of the forms of activity which were familiar to him here on earth. He will go into a state where he finds nothing which interests him, and nothing for him to do. Surely there can be no more tragic folly than the folly of letting myself be so absorbed and entangled by this present world as that when the transient has passed I shall feel homeless and desolate, and have nothing that I can do or care about amidst the activities of eternity.
II. The sunny landscape drawn by the seer. To begin with, note the contrast of the other shepherd. Death shall be their shepherd. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their shepherd. All Christs shepherding on earth and in heaven depends, as do all our hopes for heaven and earth, upon the fact of His sacrificial death. It is only because He is the Lamb that was slain that He is either the Lamb in the midst of the Throne, or the Shepherd of the flock. He is the Lamb, and He is Shepherd–that suggests not only that the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ is the basis of all His work for us on earth and in heaven, but the very incongruity of the metaphor making one who bears the same nature as the flock to be the Shepherd of the flock, is part of the beauty of the metaphor. They follow Him because He is one of themselves, and He could not be the Shepherd unless He were the Lamb. But then this other Shepherd is not only gracious, sympathetic, kind to us by common participation in a common nature, and fit to be our Guide because He has been our Sacrifice and the propitiation of our sins, but He is the Lamb in the midst of the throne, wielding therefore all Divine power, and standing in the middle point between it and the ring of worshippers, and so the Communicator to the outer circumference of all the blessings that dwell in the Divine centre. He shall be their Shepherd, not coercing, not driving by violence, but leading to the fountains of the waters of life, gently and graciously. And it is not compulsory energy which He exercises upon us, either on earth or in heaven, but it is the drawing of a Divine attraction, sweet to put forth and sweet to yield to. There is still another contrast. Death huddled and herded his reluctant sheep into a fold, where they lie inactive but struggling and restless. Christ leads His flock into a pasture. He shall guide them to the fountains of waters of life. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The sheep of death
The whole psalm pours contempt on wealth, pursues it with the most incisive and biting irony. Its pictures of the man who devotes his whole life to amassing a treasure of which, when he takes the inevitable journey of death, he cannot carry so much as a single shekel with him; of the man who calls his lands after his own name, as if to cheat death itself, and to secure a bastard immortality, perpetuating his name on earth while he himself perishes in Hades; and of the man who thinks it possible to bribe death, and buy the power to live on for ever, are quick with a scorn beyond that of satire. They tremble with a fervid moral indignation and contempt for the folly which can mistake wealth for mans chief good. Wealth is not mans chief good; it is wrong, it is wicked, it is a profound and fatal violation of the Divine law and order, to make it the governing and supreme aim of life. For all who do that, even though they violate no human law, end even though they acquire but little of the wealth they seek, the psalmist cherishes a pure, unutterable scorn. To him they are losing the very form and status of men. They are sinking to the level of beasts that perish; i.e. they are living as though they had no life but this, as if death were not, as if there were no light beyond the grave. But there is one picture of them, still hidden from us by a thin veil of words, in which his scorn for these brutish people culminates in a figure as terrible, perhaps, as any in the whole range of Scripture. In Psa 49:14 he depicts them as the sheep of death. The opening clauses of the verses, rightly translated, run, Like sheep they are gathered to Hades; death is their Shepherd (He who feeds or finds pasture for them; not he who feeds on them). What the psalmist means is that men who make wealth their ruling aim are not simply like the beasts that perish, but are in very deed the sheep of death; that it is death whom they have chosen for their shepherd, instead of God, the Author and Source of life; that it is Death who finds pasture for them while they live, and who, when they die, drives them to his fold in the unseen world. Think of it! The sheep of death–men following that grim shadow to the darkness in which it dwells! And these the men who bless their souls (verse18), whom the world praises because they have done good to themselves, whose sayings the world quotes and approves after they have gone to their long, dark home! Was there ever a more grisly and dreadful metaphor? And yet is it one whir too dreadful? Is it not true that every man who trusts in riches, or longs for them as his chief good, is pursuing death, not life; has taken for his shepherd the dark Shadow feared of man, although he knows it not? Can we not see in that very trust or longing the very brand of death, the private and distinctive mark of that grim Shepherd? (The Expositor.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Like sheep they are laid in the grave] lishol, into sheol, the place of separate spirits.
Death shall feed on them] maveth yirem, “Death shall feed them!” What an astonishing change! All the good things of life were once their portion, and they lived only to eat and drink; and now they live in sheol, and Death himself feeds them! and with what? Damnation. Houbigant reads the verse thus: “Like sheep they shall be laid in the place of the dead; death shall feed on them; their morning shepherds rule over them; and their flesh is to be consumed. Destruction is to them in their folds.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Like sheep; which for a season are fed in large and sweet pastures, but at the owners pleasure are put together in close and comfortless folds, and led away to the slaughter, not knowing nor considering whither they are going.
In the grave; or, in hell; for the Hebrew word signifies both.
Death shall feed on them; the first death shall consume their bodies in the grave, and the second death shall devour their souls.
The upright; good men, whom here they oppressed and abused at their pleasure.
In the morning; either,
1. Suddenly, or within a very little time, as this phrase is oft used, as Psa 30:5; 46:5; 101:8; 113:8. Or,
2. In the day of general judgment, and the resurrection of the dead. For death being called the night, Joh 9:4, and sleep in many places, that day is fitly compared to the morning, when men awake out of sleep, and enter upon that everlasting day. But whether this or the former be the true meaning of the phrase, it is sufficiently evident the thing here spoken of is not done in this life, but in the next; for,
1. This proposition and privilege being general, and common to all upright persons, is not verified here, it being the lot of many good men to be oppressed and killed by the wicked, as is manifest both from Scripture, as Psa 44:22; Ecc 8:14; 9:2, and from the experience of all ages of the church.
2. This dominion of the just over the wicked happens after the wicked are laid in their grave, as is here expressed, and consequently supposeth their future life and resurrection; for when one person rules over another, both are supposed to exist or have a being. Nor is there any argument against this sense, but from a vain and absurd conceit which some men have entertained, that the saints in the Old Testament had no firm belief nor expectation of the recompences of the life to come; which is against evident reason, and against many clear places of the Old Testament that cannot without force be wrested to any other sense, and against the express testimony of the New Testament concerning them, Heb 11, and in many other places.
Their beauty; or, their form or, their figure, or image; all which come to one, and seems to intimate that all their glory and felicity had in this life was rather imaginary than real, and indeed but a shadow, as it is called, Ecc 6:12; 8:13.
Shall consume, Heb. is to consume, or to be consumed, i.e. shall be consumed; the infinitive verb being here put for the future, as it is Psa 32:8; Zec 3:4; 12:10.
From their dwelling i.e. they shall be hurried from their large, and stately, and pleasant mansions, into a close and dark grave. But those words are by divers interpreters rendered otherwise, and that peradventure more truly and fitly to this purpose, word for word,
the grave (or rather hell, as before and this word sheol is confessedly oft used in the Old Testament, but no where more conveniently than here) shall be a dwelling, or for a dwelling, unto him, or them, or every one of them; which in the prophets phrase is called dwelling with everlasting burnings, Isa 33:14, and in the phrase of the New Testament, to be cast into and abide in the lake of fire and brimstone, Rev 20:10.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. Like sheep(compare Ps49:12) unwittingly, they
are laidor, “put,”&c.
death shall feed onor,better, “shall rule”
themas a shepherd(compare “feed,” Ps 28:9,Margin).
have dominion overor,”subdue”
them in the morningsuddenly,or in their turn.
their beautyliterally,”form” or shape.
shall consumeliterally,”is for the consumption,” that is, of the grave.
from theirdwellingliterally, “from their home (they go) to it,”that is, the grave.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Like sheep they are laid in the grave,…. They are not in life like sheep, harmless and innocent; nor reckoned as such for the slaughter, as the people of God are; unless it be that they are like them, brutish and stupid, thoughtless of death, and unconcerned about their estate after it; and so die and go into the grave, like natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, 2Pe 2:12; or rather like sheep that have been grazing in good pasture in the daytime, at night are put into a dark and narrow pinfold or pound; so wicked rich men, having lived in great abundance and plenty in the day of life, when the night of death comes, they are put into the dark and narrow grave. And it is further to be observed, that the comparison is not to sheep prepared for slaughter, and killed for food; for these are not laid in a ditch, to which the grave may answer; but, as Junius observes, to those that die of themselves; to rotten sheep, and who are no other than carrion, and are good for nothing but to be cast into a ditch; so wicked men are laid in the grave; but as to be laid in the grave is common to good and bad after death, rather the words should be rendered, “like sheep they are laid in hell” c; as the word is in Ps 9:17; a place of utter darkness and misery, where the wicked rich man was put when he died,
Lu 16:19;
death shall feed on them: or “rule them” d; as shepherds rule their flocks, in imitation of whom kings govern their subjects; the same word is used of both; and so death is represented as a king, or rather as a tyrant reigning over the sons of men; even over kings and princes, and the great men of the earth, who have reigned over others; see Ro 5:14; or “shall feed them” e, as the shepherd feeds the sheep; not by leading them into green pastures, into the Elysian fields; but where a drop of water cannot be obtained to cool the tongue; into utter darkness, where are weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; into the apartments of hell, and habitations of devils, to be guests with them, and live as they do: or “shall feed on them”; as the wolf on the sheep, devouring their strength, and consuming their bodies, Job 18:13; but as this is no other than what it does to everyone, rather the second, or an eternal death, is here meant; the wrath of God, the worm that is always gnawing, eating, and consuming, and never dies;
and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; the upright are such to whom the uprightness or righteousness of Christ is shown or imputed, and who have right spirits renewed, and principles of grace and holiness formed in them, and walk uprightly in their lives and conversations; these, in the morning of the resurrection day, when Christ the sun of righteousness shall arise, when the light of joy and gladness, shall break forth upon his coming, at the beginning of the day of the Lord, which will last a thousand years; they, the dead in Christ, rising first, shall, during that time, reign with him as kings and priests; when the wicked, being destroyed in the general conflagration, shall become the footstool of Christ, and be like ashes under the soles of the feet of his people; and the kingdom, the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the saints; see 1Th 4:16 Da 7:27; and though this is a branch of the happiness and glory of the people of God, yet it is here mentioned as an aggravation of the misery of the wicked, who, in another state, will be subject to those they have tyrannized over here;
and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling; or “their form” f and figure; diseases often destroy the beauty of a man, death changes his countenance, and makes a greater alteration still; but the grave takes away the very form and figure of the man; or, as it is in the “Keri”, or margin of the Hebrew text, “and their rock shall consume” g; that is, their riches, which are their rock, fortress, and strong city, and in which they place their trust and confidence; these shall fail them when they come to the grave, which is “their dwelling”, and is the house appointed for all living: and seeming it is so, rather this should be understood of “hell” h, which will be the everlasting mansion of wicked men, and in which they will be punished in soul and body for ever; though rather the sense is, “when their rock”, that is, Christ, shall come “to consume the grave”, and destroy its power; when he, I say, shall come “out of his habitation”, heaven, then shall the righteous have the dominion, 1Th 4:16.
c “in inferno”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth. d “reget eos”, Vatablus. e “Pascet eos”, Musculus, Tigurine version, Gejerus, Cocceius. f “figura eorum”, Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus; “forma eorum”, Tigurine version, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. g “auxilium eorum”, Sept. V. L. Eth. Ar. “robur illorum”, Musculus “petra illorum”, Cocceius. h “infernus”, Musculus, Junius Tremellius, Gejerus, Michaelis so Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed them (227) The figure is striking. They go down into the grave as sheep are gathered into the fold by the shepherd. The entire world might not seem vast enough for men of a haughty spirit. They are so swollen with their vain imaginations, that they would engross universal nature to themselves. But the Psalmist, finding the wicked spread as it were far and wide, in the boundless pride of their hearts, collects them together into the grave, and hands them over to death as their shepherd. He intimates, that whatever superiority they might affect over their fellow-creatures, they would feel, when too late, that their boasting was vain, and be forced to yield themselves up to the irresistible and humiliating stroke of death. In the second part of the verse, the Psalmist points out the very different fate which awaits the children of God, and thus anticipates an obvious objection. It might be said, “Thou tellest us that those who place their confidence in this world must die. But this is no new doctrine. And why convert into matter of reproach what must be considered as a law of nature, attaching to all mankind? Who gave thee a privilege to insult the children of mortality? Art thou not one of them thyself?” This objection he meets effectually, by granting that on the supposition of death being the destruction of the whole man, he would have advanced no new or important doctrine, but arguing that infidel worldlings reject a better life to come, and thus lay themselves justly open to this species of reprehension. For surely it is the height of folly in any man for a mere momentary happiness — a very dream — to abdicate the crown of heaven, and renounce his hopes for eternity. Here it must be apparent, as I already took occasion to observe, that the doctrine of this psalm is very different from that taught by the philosophers. I grant that they may have ridiculed worldly ambition with elegance and eloquence, exposed the other vices, and insisted upon the topics of our frailty and mortality; but they uniformly omitted to state the most important truth of all, that God governs the world by his providence, and that we may expect a happy issue out of our calamities, by coming to that everlasting inheritance which awaits us in heaven. It may be asked, what that dominion is which the upright shall eventually obtain? I would reply, that as the wicked must all be prostrated before the Lord Jesus Christ, and made his footstool, His members will share in the victory of their Head. It is indeed said, that he “will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father,” but he will not do this that he may put an end to his Church, but “that God may be all in all,” (1Co 15:24.) It is stated that this will be in the morning (228) — a beautiful and striking metaphor. Surrounded as we are by darkness, our life is here compared to the night, or to a sleep, an image which is specially applicable to the ungodly, who lie as it were in a deep slumber, but not inapplicable to the people of God, such being the dark mist which rests upon all things in this world, that even their minds (except in so far as they are illuminated from above) are partially enveloped in it. Here “we see only as through a glass darkly,” and the coining of the Lord will resemble the morning, when both the elect and reprobate will awake. The former will then cast aside their lethargy and sloth, and being freed from the darkness which rested upon them, will behold Christ the Sun of Righteousness face to face, and the full effulgence of life which resides in him. The others, who lie at present in a state of total darkness, will be aroused from their stupidity, and begin to discover a new life, of which they had previously no apprehension. We need to be reminded of this event, not only because corruption presses us downwards and obscures our faith, but because there are men who profanely argue against another life, from the continued course of things in the world, scoffing, as Peter foretold, (2Pe 3:4,) at the promise of a resurrection, and pointing, in derision, to the unvarying regularity of nature throughout the lapse of ages. We may arm ourselves against their arguments by what the Psalmist here declares, that, sunk as the world is in darkness, there will dawn ere long a new morning, which will introduce us to a better and an eternal existence. It follows, that their strength, or their form, (229) (for the Hebrew word צורה, tsurah, is susceptible of either meanings) shall wax old If we read strength, the words intimate, that though at present they are in possession of wealth and power, they shall speedily decline and fall; but I see no objection to the other meaning, which has more commonly been adopted. Paul tells us, (1Co 7:31,) that “ the fashion of this world passes away,” a term expressive of the evanescent nature of our earthly condition; and the Psalmist may be considered as comparing their vain and unsubstantial glory to a shadow. The words at the close of the verse are obscure. Some read, The grave is their dwelling; and then they make ם , mem, the formative letter of a noun. But the other interpretation agrees better both with the words and scope of the psalm, that the grave awaits them from his dwelling, which is put for their dwelling; such a change of number being common in the Hebrew language. They reside at present in splendid mansions, where they rest in apparent security, but we are reminded that they must soon come out of them, and be received into the tomb. There may be a covert allusion to their goings abroad to places of public resort with gaiety and pomp. These, the Psalmist intimates, must give place to the sad procession by which they must be carried down to the grave.
(227) This is also the reading of the Septuagint, “ Θάνατος ποιμανεῖ αὐτούς,” “Death shall feed them as a shepherd,” and of Jerome, “ Mors pascet eos;” and this is the view taken by Dr Kennicott, Dr Hammond, and Bishop Horsley. Hammond’s explanation of this clause is as follows. He observes, that the Hebrew word רעה, raah, means to give the sheep pasture, or to look to them when they are feeding, Gen 29:7; and that this feeding of sheep is very different from feeding on them. He farther observes, that the word is frequently used for ruling or governing “In this place,” says he, “the metaphor of sheep must needs rule the signification of it. As sheep are put into a pasture, there to continue together in a common place, so men are put into שאול, ἅδης, the state of the dead, mentioned in the former words, and to that regularly follows — Death ידעם, [shall feed them,] — is as the shepherd that conducts or leads them into this pasture, those Elysian fields: — an excellent piece of divine poesy, to signify, how men like sheep, like beasts, go by flocks and herds out of this life, or more plainly, that men die as ordinarily and regularly as sheep are led to their pasture.” Some, however, read, “Death feedeth upon them.” “ רעה signifies not only to feed, but to feed upon and lay waste; and thus we render it in Mic 5:6, ‘They shall waste Assyria with the sword.’ See also Psa 80:14.” — Appendix to the Notes in Merrick’s version, No. 4, p. 304. This verb also signifies to feed upon in Isa 44:20, and Hos 12:2. Fry’s translation is,
“
They are set apart like sheep for Hades; Death feedeth upon them, and they go down to them;”
and he thinks that the idea here is, that Death and Hades are the two monsters for whose consumption the flock is destined. This is a personification which we frequently meet with in the Latin poets. Cerberus is often represented by them as feasting on the bodies of men in the grave; Thus, notwithstanding the strong desires which worldly men have for immortality in this world, they shall become the victims of the grave, and the prey of death.
(228) In the morning, that is, says Dathe, in the time of judgment. He thinks there is here an allusion to the usual time of holding courts of justice, which was in the morning. See Psa 73:14, and 101:8; and Jer 21:12.
(229) The LXX. read, ‘Η βοήθεια αὐτῶν, their help, conceiving the word צותם, tsuram, to be derived from צור, tsur, a rock, and metaphorically, confidence, aid Ainsworth reads, “their form,” their figure, shape, or image, with all their beauty and proportion; or “their rock,” that is, their strength “The Hebrew tsur, ” says he, “is usually a rock; here it seemeth to be all one with tsurah, a form or figure; and this is confirmed by the writing, for though by the vowels and reading it is tsur, yet, by the letters, it is, tsir, which is an image, Isa 45:16.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) Like sheep they are laid in the grave.Rather, like a flock for sheol they are arranged; death is their shepherd. While planning for a long life, and mapping out their estates as if for a permanent possession, they are but a flock of sheep, entirely at the disposal and under the direction of another, and this shepherd is death. Comp. Kebles paraphrase.
Even as a flock arrayed are they
For the dark grave; Death guides their way,
Death is their shepherd now.
The rendering, feed on them, is an error. The rest of the verse as it stands is quite unintelligible. Among the many conjectured emendations, the best is (Burgess) to point the verb as the future of yrad, and render, and the upright shall go down to the grave amongst them (i.e., amongst the ungodly) until the morning (for the last words compare Deu. 16:4), when in contrast to the wicked they shall see light (Psa. 49:20).
Adopting this emendation, a new force is lent to the next two clauses, which have puzzled modern commentators, as they did the ancient translators (LXX., their help shall grow old in hell from their glory.) By a slight change of points and accents, and taking mizbul as a derivative noun equivalent to zebul (so also Grtz), we get, Their beauty (is) for corruption; sheol (is) its dwelling, i.e., all, wise and unwise, good and bad, must descend to the under world (Psa. 49:11), so that the upright accompany the wicked thither, and it becomes the dwelling-place of their beauty, i.e., their bodies.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
14. Like sheep The imagery is startling. Death is personified as a shepherd, to whom these sensuous worldlings are committed. He leads or drives them into sheol, the region of the dead.
Laid in the grave Placed, or appointed there.
Death shall feed on them “On” is not in the original. The idea is rather, “death shall feed them,” that is, as a shepherd does his sheep. So also the Septuagint, , feed them. The feeding also implies tending, governing. They are completely under his power and dictation. What a shepherd, and what a flock!
Upright shall have dominion Literally, shall tread on them, as the conqueror does upon the vanquished. The idea is that of complete domination.
In the morning , ( boker,) here, will not bear the figurative sense of soon, early, speedily, for the scene is laid in the invisible world. The word almost universally means “morning” literally, and so, also, here. The old commentators here found an allusion to the resurrection, and the eternal reign of the saints, and the language is perfectly suited to such an application, and to no other. There is no “morning” after “death” but at the resurrection, when the perfect and everlasting “dominion” of the saints here intended will obtain. See on Psa 49:15, and Mat 19:28
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
But For The Upright There Is Hope. For Them There Is A Coming Morning and A Redemption ( Psa 49:14-15 ).
These two verses stand out on their own between the two ‘Selahs’. In them the fate of the unrighteous is contrasted with the of the upright. Once again we see in a Davidic Psalm his certainty that somehow God will not let him or the upright perish for ever. This is especially confirmed by the use of the term ‘redeem’ (same root as Psa 49:8). Here there is a redemption. It is wrought by God Who alone can pay the price that is required
Psa 49:14-15
‘They are appointed as a flock for Sheol,
Death will be their shepherd,
And the upright will have dominion over them in the morning,
And their beauty will be for Sheol to consume,
That there be no habitation for it.
But God will redeem my life from the power of Sheol,
For he will receive me. [Selah
The truth is that just as sheep follow one another without thought wherever the shepherd leads, so all these men described are appointed as a flock for the world of the grave, entering it by following their shepherd Death, with no way of escape. And all their wealth and beauty will be for the grave to consume. In Sheol there is nowhere for their wealth and beauty to be stored.
But this is in contrast with the upright for whom there is to be a morning. ‘And the upright will trample over them (rule over them, triumph over them) in the morning’, Had it not been for what follows we might simply have seen this as signifying that they would live on and enjoy fullness of life, but the mention of redemption from Sheol argues strongly that such a redemption is indicated for the upright. For them there will be a resurrection morning when at last they receive their reward and triumph over those who have spurned them. See Isa 26:19. We can compare how on our behalf Christ rose again from the dead and triumphed over those who assailed Him (Col 2:15)
This thought is confirmed by the certainty of the Psalmist himself that his soul will be redeemed from the power (literally ‘the hand’) of Sheol, so that God will receive him. In the light of the previous mention of a redemption so costly that no wealthy man can finance it, the thought must surely be that God Himself can pay that price. The Psalmist is therefore confident that he will be received into the presence of God. He possibly has in mind how Enoch walked with God, and ‘God took him’ (Gen 5:22-24). A similar idea is in mind when Elijah was taken up into Heaven (2Ki 2:11; 2Ki 2:16-18). Both these examples indicated the possibility of the upright not finally dying. In view of the sacrifices that redeemed men from death it is not a great step from them to the possibility of a greater sacrifice that will redeem men from eternal death, but that is of course not mentioned here. It is, however, made more plain in Isa 53:10.
For the Christian the significance is even clearer. Through the offering of Christ once and for all, the greatest price that was ever paid (see 1Pe 1:18-19), the truly believing Christian has been redeemed from the grave and has been guaranteed eternal life through the resurrection.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Psa 49:14. Like sheep, &c. Like sheep they shall be laid in the place of the dead; death shall feed on them; their morning-shepherds rule over them, and their flesh is to be consumed: destruction is to them in their folds. So Houbigant, keeping up the metaphor all through from sheep. The Psalmist seems to consider sheol as a place where the deceased were penned up like sheep, for the food of death; while, according to the common interpretation, God would raise up the righteous again, as it were in the morning, after a sort of deathlike suffering, to be masters over these rich wicked men. Particularly, he himself speaks with confidence that God would raise him. There is in Psalms 90 somewhat of the same mode of speaking, where the morning is considered as a kind of resurrection for good men after a state of black sufferings. Some think that the phrase, in the morning, signifies only speedilyin a short time. See Psa 90:14. For my own part, I cannot help preferring Houbigant’s interpretation, which, continuing the metaphor, speaks simply of the future punishment of the wicked, when they have departed this life. For those who think otherwise, those passages in the New Testament may well be referred to, where we are assured that the just shall rise and reign with Christ.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 49:14 Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
Ver. 14. Like sheep they are laid in the grave ] These fatlings of the world, these brainless young nobleman, that will not be warned by other men’s harms, but walk on in the same dark and dangerous ways, whatever cometh of it, these chop into the grave (as a man that walketh in the snow may do suddenly into a marl pit, and there be smothered), or rather are there pent up, as sheep are thrust up in a stall, or stable, to be slaughtered there (and in hell their souls); they lie as grapes in a winepress, pickled herrings in a barrel, stones in a lime furnace, tiles in a brick kiln, &c. Tanquam pecudes, like sheep, saith the psalmist here; and Junius’s note is, Morticinas puta in cloacis, exquiliis vel puticulis proiectas; like sheep, that dying of the murrain, are thereupon cast into ditches, jakes, bogs.
Death shall feed on them
And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning
And their beauty shall consume in the grave
Sic transit gloria mundi .
So passes the honour of the world. 1Co 7:31 .
From their dwelling
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psalms
TWO SHEPHERDS AND TWO FLOCKS
Psa 49:14
These two verses have a much closer parallelism in expression than appears in our Authorised Version. If you turn to the Revised Version you will find that it rightly renders the former of my texts, ‘Death shall be their shepherd,’ and the latter, ‘The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall be their Shepherd.’ The Old Testament Psalmist and the New Testament Seer have fallen upon the same image to describe death and the future, but with how different a use! The one paints a grim picture, all sunless and full of shadow; the other dips his pencil in brilliant colours, and suffuses his canvas with a glow as of molten sunlight. The difference between the two is partly due to the progress of revelation and the light cast on life and immortality by Christ through the Gospel. But it is much more due to the fact that the two writers have different classes in view. The one is speaking of men whose portion is in this life, the other of men who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. And it is the characters of the persons concerned, much more than the degree of enlightenment possessed by the writers, that makes the difference between these two pictures. Life and death and the future are what each man makes of them for himself. We shall best deal with these two pictures if we take them separately, and let the gloom of the one enhance the glory of the other. They hang side by side, like a Rembrandt beside a Claude or a Turner, each intensifying by contrast the characteristics of the other. So let us look at the two-first, the grim picture drawn by the Psalmist; second, the sunny one drawn by the Seer. Now, with regard to the former,
I. The grim picture drawn by the Psalmist.
‘Death is their shepherd.’ Yes, but what manner of shepherd? Not one that gently leads his flock, but one that stalks behind the huddled sheep, and drives them fiercely, club in hand, on a path on which they would not willingly go. The unwelcome necessity, by which men that have their portion in this world are hounded and herded out of all their sunny pastures and abundant feeding, is the thought that underlies the image. It is accentuated, if we notice that in the former clause, ‘like sheep they are laid in the grave,’ the word rendered in the Authorised Version ‘laid,’ and in the Revised Version ‘appointed,’ is perhaps more properly read by many, ‘like sheep they are thrust down .’ There you have the picture-the shepherd stalking behind the helpless creatures, and coercing them on an unwelcome path.
Now that is the first thought that I suggest, that to one type of man, Death is an unwelcome necessity. It is, indeed, a necessity to us all, but necessities accepted cease to be painful; and necessities resisted-what do they become? Here is a man being swept down a river, the sound of the falls is in his ears, and he grasps at anything on the bank to hold by, but in vain. That is how some of us feel when we face the thought, and will feel more when we front the reality, of that awful ‘must.’ ‘Death shall be their shepherd,’ and coerce them into darkness. Ask yourself the question, Is the course of my life such as that the end of it cannot but be a grim necessity which I would do anything to avoid?
This first text suggests not only a shepherd but a fold: ‘Like sheep they are thrust down to the grave.’ Now I am not going to enter upon what would be quite out of place here: a critical discussion of the Old Testament conception of a future life. That conception varies, and is not the same in all parts of the book. But I may, just in a word, say that ‘the grave’ is by no means the adequate rendering of the thought of the Psalmist, and that ‘Hell’ is a still more inadequate rendering of it. He does not mean either the place where the body is deposited, or a place where there is punitive retribution for the wicked, but he means a dim region, or, if I might so say, a localised condition, in which all that have passed through this life are gathered, where personality and consciousness continue, but where life is faint, stripped of all that characterises it here, shadowy, unsubstantial, and where there is inactivity, absolute cessation of all the occupations to which men were accustomed. But there may be restlessness along with inactivity; may there not? And there is no such restlessness as the restlessness of compulsory idleness. That is the main idea that is in the Psalmist’s mind. He knows little about retribution, he knows still less about transmutation into a glorious likeness to that which is most glorious and divine. But he conceives a great, dim, lonely land, wherein are prisoned and penned all the lives that have been foamed away vainly on earth, and are now settled into a dreary monotony and a restless idleness. As one of the other books of the Old Testament puts it, it is a ‘land of the shadow of death, without order, and in which the light is as darkness.’
I know, of course, that all that is but the imperfect presentation of partially apprehended, and partially revealed, and partially revealable truth. But what I desire to fix upon is that one dreary thought of this fold, into which the grim shepherd has driven his flock, and where they lie cribbed and huddled together in utter inactivity. Carry that with you as a true, though incomplete thought.
Let me remind you, in the next place, with regard to this part of my subject, of the kind of men whom the grim shepherd drives into that grim fold. The psalm tells us that plainly enough. It is speaking of men who have their portion in this life, who ‘trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches . . . whose inward thought is that their house shall continue for ever . . . who call their lands after their own names.’ Of every such man it says: ‘when he dieth he shall carry nothing away’-none of the possessions, none of the forms of activity which were familiar to him here on earth. He will go into a state where he finds nothing which interests him, and nothing for him to do.
Must it not be so? If we let ourselves be absorbed and entangled by the affairs of this life, and permit our whole spirits to be bent in the direction of these transient things, what is to become of us when the things that must pass have passed, and when we come into a region where there are none of them to occupy us any more? What would some Manchester men do if they were in a condition of life where they could not go on ‘Change on Tuesdays and Fridays? What would some of us do if the professions and forms of mental activity in which we have been occupied as students and scholars were swept away? ‘Whether there be knowledge it shall cease; whether there be tongues they shall vanish away,’ and what are you going to do then, you men that have only lived for intellectual pursuits connected with this transient state? We are going to a world where there are no books, no pens nor ink, no trade, no dress, no fashion, no amusements; where there is nothing but things in which some of us have no interest, and a God who ‘is not in all our thoughts.’ Surely we shall be ‘fish out of water’ there. Surely we shall feel that we have been banned and banished from everything that we care about. Surely men that boasted themselves in their riches, and in the multitude of their wealth, will be necessarily condemned to inactivity. Life is continuous, and all on one plane. Surely if a man knows that he must some day, and may any day, be summoned to the other side of the world, he would be a wise man if he got his outfit ready, and made some effort to acquire the customs and the arts of the land to which he was going. Surely life here is mainly given to us that we may develop powers which will find their field of exercise yonder, and acquire characters which shall be in conformity with the conditions of that future life. Surely there can be no more tragic folly than the folly of letting myself be so absorbed and entangled by this present world, as that when the transient has passed, I shall feel homeless and desolate, and have nothing that I can do or care about amidst the activities of Eternity. Dear friend, should you feel homeless if you were taken, as you will be taken, into that world?
Turn now to
II. The sunny landscape drawn by the Seer.
We have to think, first, of that most striking, most significant and profound modification of the Old Testament words, which presents the Lamb as ‘the Shepherd.’ All Christ’s shepherding on earth and in heaven depends, as do all our hopes for heaven and earth, upon the fact of His sacrificial death. It is only because He is the ‘Lamb that was slain’ that He is either the ‘Lamb in the midst of the Throne,’ or the Shepherd of the flock. And we must make acquaintance with Him first in the character of ‘the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,’ before we can either follow in His footsteps as our Guide, or be compassed by His protection as our Shepherd.
He is the Lamb, and He is the Shepherd-that suggests not only that the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ is the basis of all His work for us on earth and in heaven, but the very incongruity of making One, who bears the same nature as the flock to be the Shepherd of the flock, is part of the beauty of the metaphor. It is His humanity that is our guide. It is His continual manhood, all through eternity and its glories, that makes Him the Shepherd of perfected souls. They follow Him because He is one of themselves, and He could not be the Shepherd unless he were the Lamb.
But then this Shepherd is not only gracious, sympathetic, kin to us by participation in a common nature, and fit to be our Guide because He has been our Sacrifice and the propitiation of our sins, but He is the Lamb ‘in the midst of the throne,’ wielding therefore all divine power, and standing-not as the rendering in our Bible leads an English reader to suppose, on the throne, but-in the middle point between it and the ring of worshippers, and so the Communicator to the outer circumference of all the blessings that dwell in the divine centre. He shall be their Shepherd, not coercing, not driving by violence, but leading to the fountains of the waters of life, gently and graciously. It is not compulsory energy which He exercises upon us, either on earth or in heaven, but it is the drawing of a divine attraction, sweet to put forth and sweet to yield to.
There is still another contrast. Death huddled and herded his reluctant sheep into a fold where they lay inactive but struggling and restless. Christ leads His flock into a pasture. He shall guide them ‘to the fountains of waters of life.’ I need not dwell at any length on the blessed particulars of that future, set forth here and in the context. But let me suggest them briefly. There is joyous activity. There is constant progression. He goeth before; they follow. The perfection of heaven begins at entrance into it, but it is a perfection which can be perfected, and is being perfected, through the ages of Eternity, and the picture of the Shepherd in front and the flock behind, is the true conception of all the progress of that future life. ‘They shall follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth’-a sweet guidance, a glad following, a progressive conformity! ‘In the long years liker must they grow.’
Further, there is the communication of life more and more abundantly. Therefore there is the satisfaction of all desire, so that ‘they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.’ The pain of desire ceases because desire is no sooner felt than it is satisfied, the joy of desire continues, because its satisfaction enables us to desire more, and so, appetite and eating, desire and fruition, alternate in ceaseless reciprocity. To us, being every moment capable of more, more will be given; and ‘to-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.’
There is one point more in regard to that pasture into which the Lamb leads the happy flock, and that is, the cessation of all pains and sorrows. Not only shall they ‘hunger no more, neither thirst any more’; but ‘the sun shall not smite them, nor any heat, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.’ Here the Shepherd carried rod and staff, and sometimes had to strike the wandering sheep hard: there these are needed no more. Here He had sometimes to move them out of green pastures, and away from still waters, into valleys of the shadow of death; but ‘there,’ as one of the prophets has it: ‘they shall lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed.’
But now, we must note, finally, the other kind of men whom this other Shepherd leads into His pastures, ‘They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ Aye! that is it. That is why He can lead them where He does lead them. Strange alchemy which out of two crimsons, the crimson of our sins and the crimson of His blood, makes one white! But it is so, and the only way by which we can ever be cleansed, either with the initial cleansing of forgiveness, or with the daily cleansing of continual purifying and approximation to the divine holiness, is by our bringing the foul garment of our stained personality and character into contact with the blood which, ‘shed for many,’ takes away their sins, and infused into their veins, cleanses them from all sin.
You have yourselves to bring about that contact. ‘ They have washed their robes.’ And how did they do it? By faith in the Sacrifice first, by following the Example next. For it is not merely a forgiveness for the past, but a perfecting, progressive and gradual, for the future, that lies in that thought of washing their robes and making them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Dear brethren, life here and life hereafter are continuous. They are homogeneous, on one plane though an ascending one. The differences there are great-I was going to say, and it would be true, that the resemblances are greater. As we have been, we shall be. If we take Christ for our Shepherd here, and follow Him, though from afar and with faltering steps, amidst all the struggles and windings and rough ways of life, then and only then, will He be our Shepherd, to go with us through the darkness of death, to make it no reluctant expulsion from a place in which we would fain continue to be, but a tranquil and willing following of Him by the road which He has consecrated for ever, and deprived for ever of its solitude, because Himself has trod it.
Those two possibilities are before each of us. Either of them may be yours. One of them must be. Look on this picture and on this; and choose-God help you to choose aright-which of the two will describe your experience. Will you have Christ for your Shepherd, or will you have Death for your shepherd? The answer to that question lies in the answer to the other-have you washed your robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb; and are you following Him? You can settle the question which lot is to be yours, and only you can settle it. See that you settle it aright, and that you settle it soon.
END OF VOL. I.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
the grave. Hebrew. Sheol. App-35. Occurs three times in this Psalm, verses: Psa 49:14, Psa 49:15.
feed on them = shepherd them. Figure of speech Prosopopoeia.
the morning: i.e. the resurrection morning = the “first” resurrection of Rev 20:6; resurrection of “life” (Joh 5:29); “the just” (Act 24:15). Luk 14:14. Dan 12:2. &c.
from their dwelling: i.e. [far] from their [former] lofty house. Hebrew. zabal, from similar Assyrian root = lofty [house], in contrast with “the grave”. See note on 1Ki 8:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
grave
Heb. “Sheol,” (See Scofield “Hab 2:5”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Like: Psa 44:11, Jer 12:3, Rom 8:36
they: Job 17:13, Job 17:14, Job 21:13, Job 21:26, Job 30:23, Ecc 12:7, Isa 38:10, Isa 38:11
death: Job 24:19, Job 24:20
upright: Psa 47:3, Dan 7:22, Mal 4:3, Luk 22:30, 1Co 6:2, Rev 2:26, Rev 2:27, Rev 20:4, Rev 20:5
morning: Psa 30:5, Hos 6:3
their: Psa 39:11, Job 4:21
beauty: or, strength
in the grave: etc. or, the grave being an habitation to every one of them, Job 30:23
Reciprocal: Num 26:53 – General Jdg 5:13 – he made Job 3:14 – kings Job 3:19 – and the servant Job 21:32 – he be Job 40:13 – Hide Psa 17:15 – I awake Psa 31:22 – I am Pro 14:19 – General Ecc 3:18 – concerning Ecc 3:20 – go Isa 5:14 – hell Eze 32:27 – but Mat 22:29 – not Luk 16:26 – between Joh 11:24 – I know Joh 11:39 – Lord Act 13:36 – and saw 1Co 15:42 – in corruption
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 49:14. Like sheep Which for a season are fed in large and sweet pastures, but at the owners pleasure are led away to the slaughter, not knowing, nor considering whither they are going; they are laid in the grave As to their bodies, or placed in the invisible world, (as the word , sheol, also signifies,) with respect to their souls. Death shall feed on them The first death shall consume their bodies in the grave, and the second death shall devour their souls. And the upright Good men, whom here they oppressed and abused at their pleasure; shall have dominion over them in the morning In the day of general judgment and the resurrection of the dead. For death being called sleep and the night, (see 1Th 4:13-14; Joh 9:4,) that time is fitly termed the morning when men awake out of sleep, and enter upon an everlasting day. Dr. Hornes note here is just and striking: The high and mighty ones of the earth, who cause people to fear, and nations to tremble around them, must one day crowd the grave, in multitude and impotence, though not in innocence, resembling sheep, driven and confined by the butcher in his house of slaughter. There death, that ravening wolf, shall feed sweetly on them, and devour his long expected prey in silence and darkness, until the glorious morning of the resurrection dawn, when the once oppressed and afflicted righteous, risen from the dead, and sitting with their Lord in judgment, shall have the dominion over their cruel and insulting enemies; whose faded beauty, withered strength, and departed glory shall display to men and angels the vanity of that confidence which is not placed in God.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
49:14 {k} Like sheep they are laid in the grave; {l} death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the {m} morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling.
(k) As sheep are gathered into the fold, so shall they be brought to the grave.
(l) Because they have no part of life everlasting.
(m) Christ’s coming is as the morning, when the elect will reign with Christ their head over the wicked.