33 Bible Verses about Useless Endeavour
Most Relevant Verses
Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; even one thing befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; and they all have one breath; so that a man has no more breath than a beast: for all is vanity.
but if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all; yet if afterwards he remembers the days of darkness, for they shall be many, he shall say that everything that shall have happened to him is vanity.
I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
And I gave my heart to know wisdom and knowledge and to know folly and those who are mad; I learned in the end that this also is vexation of spirit.
At last I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to do; and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Therefore I hated life because every work that is wrought under the sun was grievous unto me; for all was vanity and vexation of spirit.
For God gives to the man that is good in his sight wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to the one that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Again, I considered all travail and every right work, that for this a man is envied of his neighbour. This is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
There is no end of all the people that have been before them; those also that come after shall not be content in him. Surely this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
It is better to enjoy the good that is present than the wandering of desire; this is also vanity and vexation of spirit.
I said in my heart, Come now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy good things; and, behold, this also is vanity.
Then I said in my heart, As it shall happen to the fool, so it shall happen even to me. Why have I worked until now to make myself wiser? Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity.
And who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool, he who shall have rule over all my labour in which I have laboured and in which I have showed myself wise under the sun? This is also vanity.
That the man who worked with wisdom and with knowledge and with uprightness would have to leave his portion to a man that has not laboured therein. This also is vanity and a great evil.
For all his days are only sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart does not take rest in the night. This is also vanity.
It is the man who is alone, without a successor, who has neither son nor brother; yet is there no end of all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches; neither saith he, For whom do I labour and bereave my soul of good? This is also vanity and sore travail.
He that loves money shall not be satisfied with money; nor he that loves abundance with increase; this is also vanity.
A man to whom God has given riches, wealth, and honour so that he lacks nothing for his soul of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to eat of it, but the strangers eat it; this is vanity, and it is an evil disease.
The laughter of the fool is as the crackling of thorns under a pot, and this also (the laughter or prosperity of the fool) is vanity.
Then I also saw that the wicked who were buried came into remembrance more than those who had frequented the holy place, and these were forgotten in the city where they had worked uprightly. This also is vanity.
There is another vanity which is done upon the earth: that there are just men, who are recompensed as if they had done according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men, who are recompensed as if they had done according to the work of the righteous; I say that this also is vanity.
For the creatures were subjected to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who has subjected them,
And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers and his testimonies which he testified against them, and they followed vanity and became vain and went after the Gentiles that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
He that tills his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that follows vain persons is void of understanding.
Therefore he consumed their days in vanity and their years in tribulation.
so I am made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.
He shall not be established; in vanity he shall err; therefore, he shall be changed into vanity.
knowing that ye have been ransomed from your vain conversation (which you received from your fathers), not with corruptible things like silver and gold,
And cast ye the unprofitable slave into the outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
