14 Bible Verses about Worldly Ambition

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

Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there is no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!

A Song of degrees of David. LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child that is weaned by his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his excellence shall mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds; Yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he?read more.
He shall fly away as a dream, and will not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

They are 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 ears of corn.

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man being in honor abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.read more.
Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. Be not thou afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise thee, when thou doest well to thyself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honor, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even from your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

He loveth transgression that loveth strife: and he that exalteth his gate seeketh destruction.

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the hights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High.read more.
Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast lifted up thyself in hight, and he hath shot up his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his hight; I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.

Yes also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire, as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth to him all nations, and collecteth to him all people:

Because thou hast laid waste many nations, all the remnant of the people shall lay thee waste; because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein. Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!

Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity!