⁵⁵ “Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”^[a](A)

¹⁴ “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;^(A)
    I will redeem them from death.^(B)
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction?^(C)

“I will have no compassion,

“The fate of the fool will overtake me also.
    What then do I gain by being wise?”^(A)
I said to myself,
    “This too is meaningless.”
¹⁶ For the wise, like the fool, will not be long remembered;^(B)
    the days have already come when both have been forgotten.^(C)
Like the fool, the wise too must die!^(D)

⁴⁸ Who can live and not see death,
    or who can escape the power of the grave?^(A)

²⁷ because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
    you will not let your holy one see decay.^(A)

⁸ the ransom^(A) for a life is costly,
    no payment is ever enough—^(B)
9 so that they should live on^(C) forever
    and not see decay.^(D)
10 For all can see that the wise die,^(E)
    that the foolish and the senseless^(F) also perish,
    leaving their wealth^(G) to others.^(H)
11 Their tombs^(I) will remain their houses^[a] forever,
    their dwellings for endless generations,^(J)
    though they had^[b] named^(K) lands after themselves.

¹² People, despite their wealth, do not endure;^(L)
    they are like the beasts that perish.^(M)

¹³ This is the fate of those who trust in themselves,^(N)
    and of their followers, who approve their sayings.^[c]
14 They are like sheep and are destined^(O) to die;^(P)
    death will be their shepherd
    (but the upright will prevail^(Q) over them in the morning).
Their forms will decay in the grave,
    far from their princely mansions.
¹⁵ But God will redeem me from the realm of the dead;^(R)
    he will surely take me to himself.^(S)