46 Bible Verses about emptiness

For thus says Yahweh, {who created} the heavens, he [is] God, {who formed} the earth and {who made} it. He himself established it; he did not create it [as] emptiness-- he formed it for inhabiting. "I [am] Yahweh and there is none besides [me].

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of Yahweh, like the waters covering the sea.

Now the earth was formless and empty, and darkness [was] over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God [was] hovering over the surface of the waters.

I looked at the earth, and behold, it was wasteland and emptiness, and to the heavens, and [they were] without their light.

I went [away] full, but Yahweh brought me back empty-handed! Why call me Naomi {when Yahweh has testified against me} and Shaddai has brought calamity upon me?"

"Surely God does not hear an empty plea, and Shaddai does not regard it.

{therefore} Job opens his mouth in empty talk-- without knowledge he multiplies words."

We have heard [of] the pride of Moab--exceedingly proud-- [of] his arrogance, pride, and insolence; {his boasting is not true}.

I said, 'Only a word of lips! {War has power and a plan}!' Now, in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me?

You think only a word of lips, '[I have] advice and power for the war.' Now, on whom do you trust that you have rebelled against me?

There is nobody {who pleads with} justice, and there is nobody who judges with honesty. They rely on nothing and speak vanity. They conceive trouble and beget iniquity;

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these [things] the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.

{For by speaking high-sounding but empty words}, they entice with desires of the flesh [and] with licentiousness those who are scarcely escaping from those who live in error,

Why do you weigh out money for [what is] not food, and your labor for {what cannot satisfy}? Listen carefully to me, and eat [what is] good, and let your soul take pleasure in {rich} food.

Unless Yahweh builds a house, its builders labor at it in vain. Unless Yahweh guards a city, a guard watches in vain. [It is] in vain for you who rise early [and] sit late, eating the bread of anxious toil, [when] thus he provides for his beloved in [his] sleep.

And so then, thus says Yahweh of hosts: '{Consider your ways}! You have sown much but have harvested little. You have eaten without [being] satisfied; {you have drunk without being satiated}; you have worn clothes without [being] warm; the one who earns wages puts it in {a pouch with holes}.'

that [the] rejoicing of [the] wicked [is] {short}, and the joy of [the] godless {lasts only a moment}?

A man of want [is] he who loves pleasure; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

And he said to them, "Watch out and guard yourselves from all greediness, because not [even] when someone has an abundance {does} his life [consist] of his possessions."

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge those people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all evil, by which some, [because they] desire [it], have gone astray from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.

And he said, 'I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and I will gather in there all my grain and possessions. And I will say to my soul, "Soul, you have many possessions stored up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, celebrate!" ' But God said to him, 'Fool! This night your life is demanded from you, and [the things] which you have prepared--whose will they be?'

So [are] the paths of all who forget God; and [the] hope of [the] godless will perish, whose confidence is cut off and {whose trust} [is] a spider's house. He will lean himself against his house, but it will not stand; he will take hold of it, but it will not endure.

Let him not trust in emptiness--he will be deceiving himself-- for worthlessness will be his recompense.

For he sees [that] the wise die, together [with the] fool and brute they perish, and leave their wealth to the next [generation].

Wealth does not profit on the day of wrath, but righteousness will deliver from death.

For we have brought nothing into the world, so that neither can we bring anything out.

When {you cry}, let your collection deliver you, and [the] wind will carry all of them away; a breath will take [them] away. But he who takes refuge in me shall take possession [of] [the] land, and he shall inherit my {holy mountain}."

Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your trouble."

And he makes the remainder of it into a god! He bows down to his idol, and he bows in worship and prays to him, and he says, "Save me, for you [are] my god!" They do not know, and they do not understand, for their eyes [are] besmeared {so that they cannot see}, their {minds} {so that they have no insight}.

Assemble and come; draw near together, survivors of the nations! They do not know, those who carry {their wooden idols} and pray to a god who cannot save.

They carry it on [their] shoulder; they support it and they set it [in] its place, and it stands in position. It cannot be removed from its place; even [when] he cries out to it, it does not answer. It does not save him from his trouble.

Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods [to] whom they [are] making smoke offerings, but they will certainly not save them in the time of their trouble.

and saying, "Men, why are you doing these [things]? We also are men with the same nature as you, proclaiming the good news [that] you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all the things [that are] in them--

And I also {have made you sick by striking you down}, making [you] desolate because of your sins. You yourself will eat but not be satisfied; your hunger [will be] in your midst, and you will put away, but you will not save, and what you save I will hand over to the sword.

" 'But if you do not listen to me and you do not carry out all these commands, and if you reject my statutes and if your inner self abhors my regulations, to not carry out all my commands [by] your breaking my covenant, I {in turn} will do this to you: then I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed {in vain}, and your enemies shall eat it.

In spite of all this they sinned further and did not believe his wonders. And he consumed their days with futility their years with terror.

They will eat and not be satisfied; they will play the whore and not multiply, because they have forsaken Yahweh {to devote themselves to

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: '{Consider your ways}! Go up the mountain and bring wood and build the house so that I may be pleased with it and honored,' says Yahweh. 'You have looked for much, and look! [It came] to little; and [when] you brought [it] home, I blew it [away]. Why?' {declares} Yahweh of hosts. 'Because my house [is] desolate and you [are] running each to your own house!

[because you] know that you were redeemed from your futile way of life inherited from your ancestors not with perishable things like silver or gold,

I [am] Yahweh your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.

For from his fullness we have all received, and grace after grace.

The thief {comes only} so that he can steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and have [it] abundantly.

until we all reach the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to a measure of the maturity of the fullness of Christ,

and you are filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority,

but emptied himself [by] taking the form of a slave, [by] becoming in the likeness of people. And being found in appearance like a man,

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that [although he] was rich, for your sake he became poor, in order that you, by his poverty, may become rich.