PSALM XLVIII (49), f. 28r.
The psalmist, standing on a hill at the top of the picture, touches his heel with his right hand and reaches up with his left to the Hand of God which issues from heaven (verse 16, (15)). He addresses three men who stand to the right below him; one of them holds a harp, another a rod, and a third a book and whip. They, in turn, are urging a group of people below them to 'hear' and 'give ear' (verses 2-7, (1-6)). In the center of the middle register are four beasts of burden to whom man is compared in verses 13, (12) and 21, (20). Below them in the center foreground are two open sarcophagi with corpses in them. A woman tearing her hair emerges from behind a three-storied sepulchre to the right, before which two men are putting a corpse into another sarcophagus. These episodes are suggested by the Latin text of verse 12, (11): 'sepulcra eorum domus illorum in aeternum,' (cf. also verses 17-20, (16-19)). In the lower right corner a king with a spear and a pair of scales is supervising the storing of treasure in a chest placed in front of a treasure-house (verses 7-9, (6-8) and 17ff., (16ff.). In the lower left corner sheep are grazing, some of them falling into a pit of Hell (verse 15, (14)).
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