---
title: Psalms 49:7
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-49-7/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/psalms-49-7.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Psalms 49:7
testament: OT
section: Poetry
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Psalms 49:7

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> No man can possibly redeem his brother or pay his ransom to God.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "None of them can ever redeem a brother Or give to God a ransom for him,"

## JW Usage

Psalm 49:7 is rarely engaged in JW apologetic publications. The Watchtower's "corresponding ransom" doctrine teaches that Jesus's death balances Adam's by being a perfect human life given for a perfect human life lost — a careful equivalence that requires Jesus to be merely human, not divine. The verse's blanket claim that "none of them can ever redeem a brother" sits uncomfortably with this framework.

## Protestant Usage

Psalm 49:7 establishes a universal principle: no human being can pay the redemption price. The redemption price is "always beyond their reach" (v. 8). Jesus did pay the redemption price — therefore Jesus is more than a human being. Pair Psalm 49:7 with Acts 20:28 ("the congregation of God, which he purchased with the blood of his own"), Hebrews 9:12 (Christ "obtained an everlasting redemption"), and Hebrews 9:14 (Christ "offered himself without blemish through an everlasting spirit"). The "corresponding ransom" reading requires Jesus to satisfy the Adamic equivalence as a man — but Psalm 49:7 says no man can redeem at all. The arithmetic works only if Jesus is divine. The price is always beyond human reach. He paid it. Therefore he is more than human.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [No Man Can Redeem — But Jesus Did](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/ransom-who-can-redeem.md) — Psalm 49:7-9, 15 / Hebrews 9:12-14 / Acts 20:28 [Salvation]