What the Bible Says About Vanity

Unto thee it was shewed, that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God; there is none else beside him.

And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them, that they should not do like them.

I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.

For he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it?

For vain man would be wise, though man be born like a wild ass’s colt.

Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity: for vanity shall be his recompence.

What is the Almighty, that we should serve him? and what profit should we have, if we pray unto him?

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing? Selah.

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

They speak vanity every one with his neighbour: with flattering lips and with a double heart do they speak.

He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

I have not sat with vain persons, neither will I go in with dissemblers.

I have hated them that regard lying vanities: but I trust in the Lord.

He deviseth mischief upon his bed; he setteth himself in a way that is not good; he abhorreth not evil.

Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them.

When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah.

And if he come to see me, he speaketh vanity: his heart gathereth iniquity to itself; when he goeth abroad, he telleth it.

Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man.

Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.

Therefore their days did he consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.

The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.

Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away.

Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.

He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.

Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished: but he that gathereth by labour shall increase.

The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death.

He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.

He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread: but he that followeth after vain persons shall have poverty enough.

Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised.

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

I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.

I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.

I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:

I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:

I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:

I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:

I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.

So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.

And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Then said I in my heart, As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to me; and why was I then more wise? Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity.

For there is a man whose labour is in wisdom, and in knowledge, and in equity; yet to a man that hath not laboured therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.

Again, I considered all travail, and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.

There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour, and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity, yea, it is a sore travail.

He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this is also vanity.

A man to whom God hath given riches, wealth, and honour, so that he wanteth nothing for his soul of all that he desireth, yet God giveth him not power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it: this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

For who knoweth what is good for man in this life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity.

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.

They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.

Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing?

I will declare thy righteousness, and thy works; for they shall not profit thee.

When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them: but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain;

Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the Lord.

O Lord, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.

Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;

Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord.

As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts?

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?

Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

From which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling;

Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called:

Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.

But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain.

What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.