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.
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You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain. For Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
They have moved Me to jealousy with a no-god. They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities. And I will move them to jealousy with a no-people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
And 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 one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovers himself!
And they rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them. And they went after the vain thing, and became vain, and after the nations around them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them not to do like them.
so I am made to possess months of vanity, and weary nights are appointed to me.
O sons of men, how long will you turn My glory into shame? Will you love vanity and seek after a lie? Selah.
He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, and has not sworn deceitfully.
Turn away my eyes from seeing vanity; in Your way give me life.
Man is like vanity; his days are like a shadow that passes away.
So says Jehovah, What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?
Because My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways from the old paths, to walk in by-paths, not in the highway,
They who take heed to lying vanities forsake their kindness;
For they changed the truth of God into a lie, and they worshiped and served the created thing more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they lure through the lusts of the flesh, by unbridled lust, the ones who were escaping 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.
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They conceive mischief, and bring forth evil, and their belly prepares deceit.
Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty look on it.
O sons of men, how long will you turn My glory into shame? Will you love vanity and seek after a lie? Selah.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud; under his tongue are mischief and vanity.
They speak vanity each one with his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
And when he comes to see me, he speaks vanity; his heart gathers iniquity to itself; he goes out and speaks of it.
Man is like vanity; his days are like a shadow that passes away.
because their mouth has spoken vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of lies.
remove far from me vanity and a lying word; give me neither poverty or riches; tear for me my portion of bread,
Vanity of vanities, says the preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
Vanity of vanities, says the preacher; all is vanity.
All nations before Him are as nothing; and to Him they are thought to be less than nothing, and vanity.
who brings the rulers to nothing; He makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
Behold, they are all evil; their works are nothing; their images are wind and vanity.
Those who make a graven image are all of them vanity; and the things in which they delight shall not help; and they are their own witnesses. They do not see nor know, that they may be ashamed.
When you cry, let your gathering deliver you; but the wind shall carry them all away. Vanity shall take them; but he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain.
Then you shall call, and Jehovah shall answer; you shall cry, and He shall say, Here I am. If you take the yoke away from among you, the pointing of the finger, and speaking vanity;
None calls for justice, nor does anyone plead for truth; they trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring out iniquity.
They are vanity, the work of delusion; in the time of their judgment they shall perish.
O Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations shall come to You from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.
Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah: Because you have spoken vanity and seen a lie, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord Jehovah.
And her prophets have daubed themselves with lime, seeing vanity and divining lies to them, saying, So says the Lord Jehovah; when Jehovah has not spoken.
Behold, is it not for Jehovah of Hosts that the people labor only for fire; yea, the nations weary themselves only for vanity?
For the family idols speak iniquity, and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain; therefore they wandered like a flock; they were troubled because there was no shepherd.
But in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
However, they worship Me in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."
For the creation was not willingly subjected to vanity, but because of Him who subjected it on hope
For the creation was not willingly subjected to vanity, but because of Him who subjected it on hope
And again, "The 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 which was toward me has not been without fruit, but I labored more abundantly than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God with me.
And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is worthless, and your faith is also worthless.
And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is worthless, and your faith is also worthless.
And if Christ is not raised, your faith is foolish; you are yet in your sins.
And if Christ is not raised, your faith is foolish; you are yet in your sins.
So that, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not without fruit in the Lord.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should not walk from now on as other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind,
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should not walk from now on as other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.
But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions, and strivings about the Law, for they are unprofitable and vain.
If anyone thinks to be religious among you, yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is vain.
But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they lure through the lusts of the flesh, by unbridled lust, the ones who were escaping from those who live in error; promising them liberty, they themselves are the slaves of corruption. For by whom anyone has been overcome, even to this one he has been enslaved.