Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageFor while he lived, he congratulated himself at every turn;and the world will praise you when you succeed on your own terms.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GFor in his lifetime he blessed his own life alone;and men will praise you when you do well for yourself.
KJV
King James VersionThough while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThough in his lifetime he blesses his soul—and men praise you when you prosper—
Footnotes
The verse performs a subtle grammatical pivot: it begins in the third person ("he blessed his own *nephesh*") and shifts without warning to the second person ("they will praise *you*"). This is not carelessness but a rhetorical trap: the psalmist momentarily implicates the listener in the same social logic. The word נַפְשׁוֹ (*nafsho*, "his nephesh") here means quite literally "his throat"—the organ of appetite and craving that he alone gratifies. Strikingly, it is the same word used for the *nephesh* that God ransoms in verse 15, now appearing as the self-serving organ of a man who blesses only himself. FOG renders it as "his own throat alone" to capture this embodied, appetitive self-centredness; FOG Message uses "congratulated himself" to make the social dynamic vivid and the irony of the contrast with verse 15 legible.