'Profit' in the Bible

Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood?

You must not turn aside, for then you would go after futile things which can not profit or deliver, because they are futile.

“Is there any pleasure to the Almighty if you are righteous,Or profit if you make your ways perfect?

“They break up my path,They profit from my destruction;No one restrains them.

“For you say, ‘What advantage will it be to You?What profit will I have, more than if I had sinned?’

“What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to the pit?Will the dust praise You? Will it declare Your faithfulness?

For her profit is better than the profit of silverAnd her gain better than fine gold.

Ill-gotten gains do not profit,But righteousness delivers from death.

Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,But righteousness delivers from death.

In all labor there is profit,But mere talk leads only to poverty.

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

What profit is there to the worker from that in which he toils?

If the serpent bites before being charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

“Everyone will be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them,Who are not for help or profit, but for shame and also for reproach.”

The oracle concerning the beasts of the Negev.Through a land of distress and anguish,From where come lioness and lion, viper and flying serpent,They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeysAnd their treasures on camels’ humps,To a people who cannot profit them;

Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame.

Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit?

“Stand fast now in your spellsAnd in your many sorceriesWith which you have labored from your youth;Perhaps you will be able to profit,Perhaps you may cause trembling.

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel,“I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit,Who leads you in the way you should go.

“I will declare your righteousness and your deeds,But they will not profit you.

“The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’And those who handle the law did not know Me;The rulers also transgressed against Me,And the prophets prophesied by BaalAnd walked after things that did not profit.

“Has a nation changed godsWhen they were not gods?But My people have changed their gloryFor that which does not profit.

“They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns,They have strained themselves to no profit.But be ashamed of your harvestBecause of the fierce anger of the Lord.”

O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,And my refuge in the day of distress,To You the nations will comeFrom the ends of the earth and say,“Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood,Futility and things of no profit.”

“What profit is the idol when its maker has carved it,Or an image, a teacher of falsehood?For its maker trusts in his own handiworkWhen he fashions speechless idols.

You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts?

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?

It happened that as we were going to the place of prayer, a slave-girl having a spirit of divination met us, who was bringing her masters much profit by fortune-telling.

But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the market place before the authorities,

just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.

But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching?

If from human motives I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account.

for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”