King James Bible
"But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?"
God directly intervenes with a harsh judgment, calling the rich man a fool—not for lacking intelligence but for moral blindness. In biblical wisdom literature, the fool is one who lives as if God does not exist, prioritizing earthly gain over eternal reality. The immediacy of 'this night' emphasizes life's uncertainty and the futility of long-term material planning without God. The passive 'shall be required' suggests death as a divine summons where one must surrender their soul, highlighting human powerlessness over life's duration. This rhetorical question exposes the ultimate meaninglessness of hoarding wealth—the man cannot take his possessions beyond death, and they will pass to others. The irony underscores that his life's work, focused on self-provision, becomes instantly irrelevant at death.