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100 Bible Verses about Vanity

Proverbs 31:30 ESV / 1,018 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 1:2 ESV / 914 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 2:11 ESV / 856 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 119:37 ESV / 839 helpful votes

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.

Ecclesiastes 5:10 ESV / 763 helpful votes

He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity.

1 Samuel 16:7 ESV / 585 helpful votes

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

Ecclesiastes 4:4 ESV / 584 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.

Psalm 39:5 ESV / 512 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

Psalm 144:4 ESV / 458 helpful votes

Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

Ecclesiastes 2:26 ESV / 453 helpful votes

For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

1 Timothy 4:8 ESV / 446 helpful votes

For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Ecclesiastes 12:8 ESV / 423 helpful votes

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 412 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Matthew 6:1-7 ESV / 391 helpful votes

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ...

Romans 8:20 ESV / 380 helpful votes

For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope

Ecclesiastes 1:14 ESV / 368 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 6:2 ESV / 366 helpful votes

A man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.

Jeremiah 4:30 ESV / 362 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.

Ecclesiastes 2:17 ESV / 362 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.

Psalm 62:9 ESV / 358 helpful votes

Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.

Job 7:16 ESV / 338 helpful votes

I loathe my life; I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are a breath.

Hebrews 13:5 ESV / 314 helpful votes

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Galatians 5:16-26 ESV / 312 helpful votes

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, ...

Ecclesiastes 2:1 ESV / 305 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 2:21 ESV / 287 helpful votes

Because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

Ecclesiastes 1:1-18 ESV / 287 helpful votes

The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem. Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises, and the sun goes down, and hastens to the place where it rises. ...

Psalm 39:6 ESV / 286 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!

Ecclesiastes 4:16 ESV / 283 helpful votes

There was no end of all the people, all of whom he led. Yet those who come later will not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 2:15 ESV / 283 helpful votes

Then I said in my heart, “What happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise?” And I said in my heart that this also is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 4:8 ESV / 282 helpful votes

One person who has no other, either son or brother, yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eyes are never satisfied with riches, so that he never asks, “For whom am I toiling and depriving myself of pleasure?” This also is vanity and an unhappy business.

Job 15:31 ESV / 282 helpful votes

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

Psalm 39:11 ESV / 280 helpful votes

When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah

Ecclesiastes 6:9 ESV / 270 helpful votes

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite: this also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 11:10 ESV / 267 helpful votes

Remove vexation from your heart, and put away pain from your body, for youth and the dawn of life are vanity.

Psalm 94:11 ESV / 265 helpful votes

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

James 1:26 ESV / 248 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 6:12 ESV / 240 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?

Jeremiah 2:5 ESV / 237 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?

Ecclesiastes 3:19 ESV / 233 helpful votes

For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.

Ephesians 4:17 ESV / 220 helpful votes

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

Psalm 127:2 ESV / 218 helpful votes

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.

2 Peter 2:18 ESV / 217 helpful votes

For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error.

Psalm 12:2 ESV / 216 helpful votes

Everyone utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

Proverbs 13:11 ESV / 204 helpful votes

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

Jeremiah 16:19 ESV / 203 helpful votes

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.

Proverbs 22:8 ESV / 194 helpful votes

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

2 Kings 17:15 ESV / 190 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.

Psalm 39:5-6 ESV / 189 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!

Psalm 10:7 ESV / 189 helpful votes

His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

Ecclesiastes 2:23 ESV / 186 helpful votes

For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.

Proverbs 21:6 ESV / 186 helpful votes

The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.

Psalm 4:2 ESV / 186 helpful votes

O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame? How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah

Job 7:3 ESV / 181 helpful votes

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

Isaiah 57:13 ESV / 180 helpful votes

When you cry out, let your collection of idols deliver you! The wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.

Psalm 41:6 ESV / 177 helpful votes

And when one comes to see me, he utters empty words, while his heart gathers iniquity; when he goes out, he tells it abroad.

Proverbs 30:8 ESV / 176 helpful votes

Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,

Psalm 24:4 ESV / 171 helpful votes

He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.

Ecclesiastes 1:17 ESV / 169 helpful votes

And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

Ecclesiastes 7:6 ESV / 168 helpful votes

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fools; this also is vanity.

Jeremiah 18:15 ESV / 167 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,

Colossians 3:5 ESV / 165 helpful votes

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Isaiah 44:9 ESV / 165 helpful votes

All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.

James 4:14 ESV / 162 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.

Proverbs 21:4 ESV / 160 helpful votes

Haughty eyes and a proud heart, the lamp of the wicked, are sin.

Ecclesiastes 2:1-26 ESV / 157 helpful votes

I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.” But behold, this also was vanity. I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?” I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine—my heart still guiding me with wisdom—and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the children of man to do under heaven during the few days of their life. I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. ...

Job 11:12 ESV / 156 helpful votes

But a stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey's colt is born a man!

Psalm 78:33 ESV / 155 helpful votes

So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.

Psalm 31:6 ESV / 151 helpful votes

I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in the Lord.

Proverbs 16:18 ESV / 146 helpful votes

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

Psalm 60:11 ESV / 146 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 2:19 ESV / 145 helpful votes

And who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.

Proverbs 28:19 ESV / 144 helpful votes

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

Psalm 2:1 ESV / 144 helpful votes

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

Lamentations 4:17 ESV / 142 helpful votes

Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.

2 Timothy 2:14 ESV / 139 helpful votes

Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers.

Hebrews 13:9 ESV / 135 helpful votes

Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

Ecclesiastes 8:14 ESV / 134 helpful votes

There is a vanity that takes place on earth, that there are righteous people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the wicked, and there are wicked people to whom it happens according to the deeds of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

Ecclesiastes 8:10 ESV / 134 helpful votes

Then I saw the wicked buried. They used to go in and out of the holy place and were praised in the city where they had done such things. This also is vanity.

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 132 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

Isaiah 41:29 ESV / 130 helpful votes

Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.

Job 11:11 ESV / 130 helpful votes

For he knows worthless men; when he sees iniquity, will he not consider it?

2 Timothy 2:16 ESV / 127 helpful votes

But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

1 Timothy 6:20 ESV / 126 helpful votes

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

Romans 8:28 ESV / 124 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Matthew 16:26 ESV / 118 helpful votes

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Ecclesiastes 1:2-3 ESV / 117 helpful votes

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?

1 Peter 1:18 ESV / 113 helpful votes

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

1 Corinthians 3:20 ESV / 113 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 12:11 ESV / 112 helpful votes

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

Ecclesiastes 11:8 ESV / 111 helpful votes

So if a person lives many years, let him rejoice in them all; but let him remember that the days of darkness will be many. All that comes is vanity.

Titus 3:9 ESV / 109 helpful votes

But avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless.

1 Corinthians 13:3 ESV / 109 helpful votes

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Ecclesiastes 6:11 ESV / 106 helpful votes

The more words, the more vanity, and what is the advantage to man?

Psalm 26:4 ESV / 106 helpful votes

I do not sit with men of falsehood, nor do I consort with hypocrites.

James 2:14 ESV / 103 helpful votes

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?

Psalm 89:47 ESV / 102 helpful votes

Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man!

Jeremiah 23:32 ESV / 101 helpful votes

Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the Lord, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the Lord.

Isaiah 1:13 ESV / 100 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.

James 4:6 ESV / 99 helpful votes

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

1 John 2:17 ESV / 97 helpful votes

And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

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