Psalms 49:11

Their inwardthought is &c. If they do reflect that they must die, they comfort themselves with the delusion that their houses will last for ever, and their names be perpetuated in the names of their estates, which like builders of cities or conquerors (2 Samuel 12:28) they have named after themselves. But the rendering their inward thoughtis questionable; and the LXX, Vulg., Syr., and Targ., all point to a different reading, involving simply a transposition of letters (qbrm for qrbm), which gives the sense:

Graves are their houses for ever;

The dwelling-places for all generations

Of those who called lands after their own names.

This reading suits the context best. They must surrender their wealth, and a narrow grave will be the only possession left to the man who called a vast estate by his own name. The first line recalls the name -eternal house" applied to the grave in Ecclesiastes 12:5, and in inscriptions: cp. -eternal place," Tob 3:6 : and Isaiah calls Shebna's pretentious sepulchre a -dwelling-place" (Isaiah 22:16). Is there an ironical allusion in the last line to the vast estates of Isaiah's day (Isaiah 5:8)?