Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageA person clothed in honor yet stripped of understanding; is no better than the beasts that perish.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GMan in his splendour, yet without understanding;he is cut down like the beasts.
KJV
King James VersionMan that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleA man who has riches without understanding is like the beasts that perish.
Footnotes
The closing refrain deliberately differs from verse 12. There, *bal-yalin* ("does not endure the night") focused on the bare fact of mortality—man cannot remain, full stop. Here, וְלֹא יָבִין (*v'lo yavin*, "and does not understand") adds the devastating moral qualifier: he dies having refused the very wisdom this psalm offered him. The psalm circles back on itself with terrible precision: those who would not *hear* (v.1) are those who do not *understand* (v.20). Mortality is universal, but culpable blindness is chosen. The two refrains together suggest that the tragedy of the wealthy is not merely that they die—so do the wise—but that they die without ever perceiving what the wise perceived. FOG renders both refrains with verbal precision to make the distinction visible side by side; FOG Message shapes the language to make the moral contrast emotionally arresting at the psalm's close.