²⁷ Who will sing praises to the Most High in Hades
    in place of the living who give thanks?^(A)
28 From the dead, as from one who does not exist, thanksgiving has ceased;
    those who are alive and well sing the Lord’s praises.^(B)

¹⁷ Death is better than a life of misery
    and eternal sleep^[a] than chronic sickness.^(A)

²⁶ Those who are wise among their people will inherit honor,^[a]
    and their names will live forever.^(A)

⁹ Help the poor for the commandment’s sake,
    and in their need do not send them away empty-handed.^(A)

⁸ Some of them have left behind a name,
    so that others declare their praise.
⁹ But of others there is no memory;
    they have perished as though they had never existed;
they have become as though they had never been born,
    they and their children after them.^(A)
10 But these also were men of compassion
    whose righteous deeds have not been forgotten;
¹¹ their wealth will remain with their descendants
    and their inheritance with their children’s children.^[a](B)
12 Their descendants stand by the covenants;
    their children also, for their sake.
¹³ Their offspring will continue forever,
    and their glory will never be blotted out.^(C)
14 Their bodies are buried in peace,
    but their name lives on generation after generation.^(D)
15 The assembly declares^[b] their wisdom,
    and the congregation proclaims their praise.^(E)

¹⁹ Before the time of his eternal sleep,
    Samuel^[a] bore witness before the Lord and his anointed:
“No property, not so much as a pair of shoes,
    have I taken from anyone!”
    And no one accused him.^(A)