77 Bible Verses about Futility

Remember how short my time is: why have you made all men in vain?

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without hope. O remember that my life is a breath: my eye shall no more see good.

Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down: he flees also as a shadow, and continues not.

LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; that I may know how frail I am. Behold, you have made my days as a handbreadth; and my age is as nothing before you: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah.

The voice said, } Cry. { And he said, What shall I cry? {} All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is as the flower of the field: The grass withers, the flower fades: because the breath of the LORD blows upon it: surely the people are grass.

Whereas you know not what shall be tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away.

This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroys the blameless and the wicked.

As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and the place there shall know it no more.

Surely every man walks in a vain show: surely they are in turmoil in vain: he heaps up riches, and knows not who shall gather them.

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

Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labor to feed the fire, and the people shall weary themselves in vain?

For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withers the grass, and its flower falls, and the beauty of the appearance of it perishes: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

The LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He takes the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.

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

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

We have heard of the pride of Moab; he is very proud: even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and his wrath: but his lies shall not be so.

We have heard the pride of Moab, (he is exceedingly proud) his loftiness, and his arrogance, and his pride, and the haughtiness of his heart. I know his wrath, says the LORD; but it shall not be so; his lies shall not so effect it.

He has showed strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree.

Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.

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

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

Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Turn away from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for of what account is he?

Woe to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not from me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my counsel; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your humiliation.read more.
For his princes were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them, nor be a help nor a profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and rely on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD! Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helps shall fall, and he that is helped shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

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

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 nations that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.

And turn you not aside: for then should you go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain.

I have hated them that regard vain idols: but I trust in the LORD.

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

But they are altogether senseless and foolish: the wooden idol is a doctrine of vanities.

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

They that regard vain idols forsake their own mercy.

And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that are mediums, and unto wizards that whisper, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? rather than the dead on behalf of the living? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. And they shall pass through it, hardpressed and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall be enraged, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.read more.
And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, gloom of anguish; and they shall be driven into darkness.

They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The LORD says: and the LORD has not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have you not seen a vain vision, and have you not spoken a lying divination, whenever you say, The LORD says it; although I have not spoken? Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord GOD.read more.
And my hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the register of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord GOD.

For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.

And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

And it shall come to pass, when it is seen that Moab wearies himself on the high place, that he shall come to his sanctuary to pray; but he shall not prevail.

They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and came to nothing. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the census, and drew away many people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nothing:

Therefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not; Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?read more.
Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any value to the indulgence of the flesh.

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

You have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked in mourning before the LORD of hosts?

These people draw near unto me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

He answered and said unto them, Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with solid food: for until now you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. For you are yet carnal: for while there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are you not carnal, and walk as men?

If any man among you seems to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

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

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

Your prophets have seen vain and foolish things for you: and they have not uncovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity; but have given you false oracles and causes of banishment.

Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

Let no man deceive you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

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

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

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

I am the vine, you are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.

Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall test every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.read more.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

And every one that hears these sayings of mine, and does them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, then comes the wicked one, and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the way side. But he that received the seed in stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it; Yet has he not root in himself, but endures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he is offended.read more.
He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what manner of man he was.

But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the imagination of their heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this belt, which is good for nothing.

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

The wicked shall see it, and be grieved; he shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away: the desire of the wicked shall perish.

You have trodden down all them that stray from your statutes: for their deceit is falsehood.

The hope of the righteous shall be gladness: but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

When a wicked man dies, his expectation shall perish: and the hope of unjust men perishes.

Thus says the LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the nations, because of the fire, and they shall be weary.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence.

For he has said, It profits a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.

Then I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing, and in vain: yet surely my due justice is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God.

Since you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain manner of life received by tradition from your fathers;

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and fit for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.