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 shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain: for Jehovah will not cleanse him who shall take his name in vain.
They made me jealous with not God; They irritated me with their vanities: And I will make them jealous with not a people; With a foolish nation will I irritate them.
And David turned back to bless his house. And Michal, Saul's daughter, will go forth to the meeting of David, and she will say, How honored the king of Israel this day who was uncovered this day to the eyes of the maids of his servants as one of the worthless uncovering was uncovered!
And they will reject his laws and his covenant which he cut out with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified in them; and they will go after vanity, and they will be vain, and after the nations which were round about them which Jehovah commanded them not to do as they.
So was I caused to possess to me months of vanity, and nights of toil were allotted to me.
Sons of man, how long mine honor for shame? Ye will love emptiness, ye. will seek falsehood. Silence.
The blameless one of hands and the clean of heart; who lifted not up his soul to vanity, and swore not for deceit
Cause mine eyes to pass from seeing vanity; make me live in thy way.
Man was likened to vanity: his days as a shadow passing away.
Thus said Jehovah, What iniquity found your fathers in me that they removed far off from me, and went after vanity, and they became vain?
Because my people forgat me they will burn incense in vain; by their ways they will cause the paths of old to fail, to go beaten paths, a way not cast up;
They watching the vanities of falsehood will forsake their kindness.
Who changed the truth of God into a falsehood, and reverenced and served the creation above him creating, who is praised forever. Amen.
For speaking excessive things of vanity, they decoy with the eager desires of the flesh, for licentiousness, them having truly escaped from those turned back 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
He conceiving trouble and he bringing forth vanity, and their belly shall prepare deceit
Also God will not hear vanity, and the Almighty will not look upon it
Sons of man, how long mine honor for shame? Ye will love emptiness, ye. will seek falsehood. Silence.
His mouth was filled with cursing and deceit and violence: under his tongue, trouble and vanity.
They will speak vanity each with his neighbor: smooth lips, with a heart and a heart will they speak
And if he came to see, he will speak vanity: his heart will gather vanity to him; he will go forth without; he will speak.
Man was likened to vanity: his days as a shadow passing away.
Whom their mouth spake vanity, and their right hand a right hand of falsehood.
Vanity and the word of falsehood remove far from me; thou wilt not give to me poverty and riches; feed me with bread of my allowance:
Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; vanity of vanities, all vanity.
Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; all is vanity.
All the nations as nothing before him; they were reckoned to him from nothing, and vanity.
He gave princes to nothing; he made the judges of the earth as vanity.
Behold, all of them, nothing; their works are no more: wind and emptiness are their libations.
They forming a carved image all of them emptiness; and their delights shall not profit, and they are their witnesses; they will not see and they will not know, so that they shall be ashamed.
In thy crying out, shall thy gatherings deliver thee? and the wind shall lift them all up; a breath shall take: and he taking refuge in me shall inherit the land, and he shall inherit my holy mountain;
Then shalt thou call and Jehovah will answer; thou shalt cry for help, and he will say, Behold me. If thou shalt take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the extending of the finger, and the word of vanity;
None called upon justice, and none judged in truth: trusting in vanity and speaking evil, they conceived labor and brought forth vanity.
They are vanity, the work of delusions: in the time of their reviewing they shall perish.
O Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in days of straits, to thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and they shall say, Surely our fathers inherited falsehood, vanity, and no receiving profit in them.
For this, thus said the Lord Jehovah: Because ye spake falsehood and saw a lie, for this, behold me against you, said the Lord Jehovah.
And her prophets plastered plaster upon them, seeing vanity, and divining to them falsehood, saying Thus said the Lord Jehovah; and Jehovah spoke not
Behold, is it not from Jehovah of armies, and the peoples shall labor in a sufficiency of fire, and the peoples shall be wearied in a sufficiency of emptiness?
For the family gods spake vanity, and the diviners saw falsehood, and they will speak dreams of falsehood they will comfort in vain: for this, they removed as a flock, they were afflicted for there was no shepherd.
But they worship me in vain, teaching doctrines the commands of men.
And in vain they revere me, teaching doctrines the commands of men.
For the creation was subject to vanity, not voluntarily, but by him having subjected in hope,
For the creation was subject to vanity, not voluntarily, but by him having subjected in hope,
And again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain.
And by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which in me was not vain; but I was more abundantly wearied than they all: and not I, but the grace of God which with me.
And if Christ has not risen, then our proclaiming vain, and also your faith vain.
And if Christ has not risen, then our proclaiming vain, and also your faith vain.
And if Christ was not raised up, your faith is vain; yet are ye in your sins.
And if Christ was not raised up, your faith is vain; yet are ye in your sins.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be stable, unmoved, abounding in the work of the Lord always, knowing that our fatigue is not in vain in the Lord.
Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that ye no more walk as also the rest of the nations, in the vanity of their mind,
Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that ye no more walk as also the rest of the nations, in the vanity of their mind, Being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God by ignorance being in them, by the hardness of their heart;
And foolish questions, and genealogies, and strifes, and conflicts pertaining to the law, avoid; for they are unprofitable and vain.
If any among you seem to be religious, bridling not his tongue, but deceiving his heart, the religion of this one vain.
And wilt thou know, O empty man, that faith without works is dead?
For speaking excessive things of vanity, they decoy with the eager desires of the flesh, for licentiousness, them having truly escaped from those turned back in error. Promising them liberty, they being servants of corruption: for by whom any is conquered, by him has he been made to serve.