Psalms 49:14

Like sheep are they put into Sheol;

Death shepherdeth them;

And the upright have dominion over them in the morning,

And their form shall Sheol consume, that it have no more habitation.

What becomes of the wicked? They are driven down to Sheol like a flock of sheep, mere animals that they are (Psalms 49:12); there Death is their shepherd: the king of terrors rules them at his will. They perish in the night, and in the morning the righteous awake, triumphant over their fallen oppressors. The night of trouble is over; the morning of deliverance has dawned (Psalms 30:5). But what is meant by -the morning"? Not, as yet, the resurrection morning; but the morning of the day which Jehovah is making, in which "all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be as stubble … and ye shall tread down the wicked, for they shall be as ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do make, saith the Lord of hosts" (Malachi 4:1; Malachi 4:3): a day in the history of the world corresponding to the day when the restored Israel "shall rule over their oppressors" (Isaiah 14:2). Comp. Psalms 104:35, and Psalms 37.

The precise meaning of the last line is doubtful and the text possibly corrupt. Their form, or perhaps, their beauty, is delivered up to Sheol to consume: a poetical way of expressing that their bodies moulder in the grave: all that made such a brave show upon earth has no more existence, no longer needs any abode. Possibly we should make a slight change in the text, and render, Their form shall be consumed, Sheol shall be their habitation. Cp. A.V. marg.