Reference: Vanity
American
Does not usually denote, in Scripture, self-conceit or personal pride, 2Pe 2:18, but sometimes emptiness and fruitlessness, Job 7:3; Ps 144:4; Ec 1. It often denotes wickedness, particularly falsehood, De 32:21; Ps 4:2; 24:4; 119:37, and sometimes idols and idol-worship, 2Ki 17:15; Jer 2:5; 18:15; Jon 2:8. Compare Paul's expression, "they turned the truth of God into a lie," Ro 1:25. "In vain," in the second commandment, Ex 20:7, is unnecessarily and irreverently. "Vain men," 2Sa 6:20; 2Ch 13:7, are dissolute and worthless fellows.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Thou shall not take the name of LORD thy God in vain, for LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with a non-nation. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself today in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants as on
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them. And they followed vanity, and became vain, and [went] after the nations that were round about them, c
so I am made to possess months of misery, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
O ye sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? Will ye love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.
He who has clean hands, and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.
Turn away my eyes from beholding vanity, and enliven me in thy ways.
Man is like vanity. His days are as a shadow that passes away.
Thus says LORD: What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?
For my people have forgotten me. They have burned incense to FALSE [gods]. And they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up,
Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
who changed the truth of God into the lie, and worshiped and served the creation against him who created it, who is blessed into the ages. Truly.
For, uttering swollen things of vanity, they entice (to sensuality by lusts of flesh) those who actually escaped from those who live in error,
Hastings
The root-idea of the word is 'emptiness.' Skeat suggests that the Lat. vanus (perhaps for vac-nus) is allied to vacuus 'empty.' In English literature 'vanity' signifies (1) emptiness, (2) falsity, (3) vainglory. The modern tendency is to confine its use to the last meaning. But 'vanity' in the sense of 'empty conceit' is not found in the English Bible.
1. In the OT.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity, and their heart prepares deceit.
Surely God will not hear an empty [cry], nor will the Almighty regard it.
O ye sons of men, how long shall my glory be turned into dishonor? Will ye love vanity, and seek after falsehood? Selah.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
They speak falsehood everyone with his neighbor. With flattering lip, and with a double heart, they speak.
And if he comes to see [me], he speaks falsehood. His heart gathers iniquity to itself. When he goes abroad, he tells it.
Man is like vanity. His days are as a shadow that passes away.
whose mouth speaks deceit, and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
Remove far from me falsehood and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me,
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, all is vanity.
All the nations are as nothing before him. They are accounted by him as less than nothing, and vanity.
who brings rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
Behold, all of them, their works are vanity [and] nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.
Those who fashion a graven image are all of them vanity. And the things that they delight in shall not profit. And their own witnesses see not, nor know, that they may be put to shame.
When thou cry, let those whom thou have gathered deliver thee. But the wind shall take them; a breath shall carry them all away. But he who takes refuge in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain.
Then thou shall call, and LORD will answer, thou shall cry, and he will say, Here I am. If thou take the yoke away from the midst of thee, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking wickedly,
No man sues in righteousness, and no man pleads in truth. They trust in vanity, and speak lies. They conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.
They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they shall perish.
O LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to thee the nations shall come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in whic
Therefore thus says lord LORD: Because ye have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says lord LORD.
And her prophets have daubed for them with untempered [mortar], seeing FALSE visions, and divining lies to them, saying, Thus says lord LORD, when LORD has not spoken.
Behold, is it not of LORD of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?
For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and they have told FALSE dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.
And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
But in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.
For the creation was made subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.
For the creation was made subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.
and again, Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are vain.
But by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace for me did not become empty, but I labored more abundantly than them all, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty.
And if Christ has not risen, then our preaching is empty, and your faith is also empty.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain. Ye are still in your sins.
And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain. Ye are still in your sins.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, become ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not empty in Lord.
This I say therefore, and solemnly declare in Lord, for you to walk no longer as also the other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
This I say therefore, and solemnly declare in Lord, for you to walk no longer as also the other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the callousness of their heart.
But avoid foolish questionings, and genealogies, and contentions, and legal fightings, for they are useless and vain.
If any man among you seems to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is futile.
But do thou want to know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?
For, uttering swollen things of vanity, they entice (to sensuality by lusts of flesh) those who actually escaped from those who live in error, promising them freedom, while they themselves are bondmen of corruption, for by what any man has been overcome, of this he has also been enslaved.