14 Bible Verses about Worldly Ambition

Now, let us go down and there confound their language that they may not understand one another's speech.

Woe unto those that join house to house, that lay field to field, until they have done away with the borders! Will ye dwell alone in the midst of the earth?

LORD, my heart has not become haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither have I walked in grandeur, nor in wonderful things above and beyond that which pertains to me. Rather I have quieted myself and caused my soul to become silent, that I might be as a child that is weaned of his mother, as one who is weaned from my own life.

that the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellency mounts up to the heavens, and his head reaches unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung; those who have seen him shall say, What is become of him?read more.
He shall fly away as a dream and shall not be found: yea, he shall flee away as a vision of the night. The eye which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place behold him any more.

They were exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others and cut off as the tops of the heads of grain.

Their inward thought is that their houses are eternal and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man will not abide forever in honour; he is like the beasts that are cut off. This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.read more.
Like sheep they are laid in Sheol; death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning, and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave from their dwelling. Surely God will ransom my soul from the hand of Sheol when he shall take me. Selah. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; for in his death he shall carry nothing away; nor shall his glory descend after him. Though while he lives, his life shall be blessed: and men will praise thee when thou art prosperous. He shall enter into the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light forever. Man that is in honour that does not understand is like the beasts that are cut off.

Where do the wars and disputes come from among you? From here that is to say, of your lusts which fight in your members? Ye covet and have not; ye murder, and have envy and cannot obtain; ye fight and war and have not that which ye desire because ye ask not.

Transgression loves him that loves strife, and he that exalts his gate seeks destruction.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, who didst claim the Gentiles as an inheritance! Thou who said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven; upon high next to the stars of God I will exalt my throne: and I will sit upon the mount of the testimony and in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.read more.
Yet thou shalt be cast down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit.

Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in height, and he has shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the strong one of the Gentiles; he shall surely deal with him; I have cut him down for his wickedness.

Even more than he who is given over to wine, the transposer, the proud man, shall not remain, who enlarges his desire as Sheol and is as death and cannot be satisfied, but gathered unto him all the Gentiles and heaps unto him all the peoples;

Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the other peoples shall spoil thee because of human blood and for the robberies of the land, of the cities, and of all that dwell therein. Woe to him that covets ill-gotten gain by violence for his house that he may set his nest on high, that he may escape from the power of evil!

Woe to him that builds the city with blood and founds the village with iniquity!