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100 Bible Verses about Vain

Psalm 127:1 ESV / 180 helpful votes

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

Psalm 60:11 ESV / 146 helpful votes

Oh, grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man!

1 Corinthians 15:58 ESV / 124 helpful votes

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Proverbs 31:30 ESV / 124 helpful votes

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Ecclesiastes 1:2 ESV / 122 helpful votes

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

Matthew 6:7 ESV / 108 helpful votes

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.

Jeremiah 2:30 ESV / 106 helpful votes

In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.

Psalm 39:6 ESV / 68 helpful votes

Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

Isaiah 1:13 ESV / 66 helpful votes

Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.

1 Corinthians 3:20 ESV / 65 helpful votes

And again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.”

Philippians 2:3 ESV / 57 helpful votes

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Ecclesiastes 2:11 ESV / 55 helpful votes

Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.

Psalm 2:1 ESV / 49 helpful votes

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

Colossians 2:8 ESV / 47 helpful votes

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Isaiah 45:19 ESV / 46 helpful votes

I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.

James 4:5 ESV / 42 helpful votes

Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?

Isaiah 30:7 ESV / 33 helpful votes

Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her “Rahab who sits still.”

Psalm 139:20 ESV / 28 helpful votes

They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain.

Isaiah 55:2 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.

Jeremiah 2:5 ESV / 25 helpful votes

Thus says the Lord: “What wrong did your fathers find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

Psalm 139:24 ESV / 24 helpful votes

And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 94:11 ESV / 24 helpful votes

The Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

Isaiah 45:9 ESV / 23 helpful votes

“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?

1 Peter 1:18 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold,

Ecclesiastes 1:14 ESV / 20 helpful votes

I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Psalm 108:12 ESV / 20 helpful votes

Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man!

1 Thessalonians 2:1 ESV / 18 helpful votes

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.

James 4:14 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.

Ecclesiastes 2:1 ESV / 17 helpful votes

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity.

James 1:26 ESV / 16 helpful votes

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

1 Corinthians 15:17 ESV / 16 helpful votes

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Isaiah 45:18-19 ESV / 15 helpful votes

For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.

2 Kings 17:15 ESV / 13 helpful votes

They despised his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.

Proverbs 12:11 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense.

Job 7:3 ESV / 12 helpful votes

So I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

Romans 13:4 ESV / 11 helpful votes

For he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Philippians 2:16 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

Galatians 3:4 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

Isaiah 30:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“Ah, stubborn children,” declares the Lord, “who carry out a plan, but not mine, and who make an alliance, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin;

Psalm 119:113 ESV / 9 helpful votes

I hate the double-minded, but I love your law.

1 John 4:1 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

Ephesians 5:6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Matthew 15:9 ESV / 8 helpful votes

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Jeremiah 4:30 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.

Psalm 33:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes

The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.

Psalm 33:10 ESV / 8 helpful votes

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

Job 15:31 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself, for emptiness will be his payment.

1 Samuel 12:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.

James 1:13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

Hebrews 6:18 ESV / 6 helpful votes

So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

2 Timothy 3:5 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Ephesians 2:10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Luke 10:27 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Deuteronomy 28:47-48 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you.

James 2:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

Matthew 4:1-25 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple ...

Proverbs 16:18 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Psalm 127:1-2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.

1 Timothy 6:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,”

2 Corinthians 6:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

1 Corinthians 13:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

Romans 1:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

John 14:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 3:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Luke 10:30-37 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. ...

Mark 7:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’

Matthew 26:52-54 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

Hosea 12:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.

Jeremiah 51:58 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire.”

Jeremiah 18:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway,

Jeremiah 8:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“How can you say, ‘We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us’? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.

Jeremiah 4:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you?

Isaiah 59:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

No one enters suit justly; no one goes to law honestly; they rely on empty pleas, they speak lies, they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.

Ecclesiastes 6:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow? For who can tell man what will be after him under the sun?

Ecclesiastes 5:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For when dreams increase and words grow many, there is vanity; but God is the one you must fear.

Ecclesiastes 4:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man's envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So I hated life, because what is done under the sun was grievous to me, for all is vanity and a striving after wind.

Proverbs 22:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.

Proverbs 16:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Psalm 144:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Of David. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

Psalm 139:23-24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

Psalm 39:5-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

Job 35:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Surely God does not hear an empty cry, nor does the Almighty regard it.

Leviticus 26:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

Leviticus 11:44 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.

Exodus 20:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Genesis 9:5-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Genesis 4:1-26 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. ...

1 Peter 1:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Hebrews 11:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Ephesians 5:11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.

Ephesians 4:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

Galatians 5:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Acts 16:31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

John 14:26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Matthew 5:38-39 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Matthew 5:1-48 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. ...

Matthew 4:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

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