29 Bible Verses about Useless Endeavour

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, 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. Yea, they all have one breath, and man has no preeminence above the beasts; for all is vanity.

Yea, if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they shall be many. All that comes is vanity.

I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and, behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also was a striving after wind.

Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do, and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

So I hated life, because the work that is wrought under the sun was grievous to me. For all is vanity and a striving after wind.

For to the man who pleases him [God] gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

I said in my heart, Come now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure. And, behold, this also was vanity.

Then said I in my heart, As it happens to the fool, so it will happen even to me, and why then was I more wise? Then said I in my heart that this also is vanity.

And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skillfulness, yet he shall leave it to a man who has not labored in it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For all his days are [but] sorrows, and his travail is grief, yea, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

He who loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.

A man to whom God gives riches, wealth, and honor, 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 an alien eats it. This is vanity, and it is an evil disease.

For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.

So I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were praised in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity.

There is a vanity which is done upon the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked, again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that

For the creation was made subject to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope.

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

He who tills his land shall have plenty of bread, but he who pursues vanities is void of understanding.

Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

so I am made to possess months of misery, and wearisome nights are appointed to me.

Let him not trust in vanity, deceiving himself. For vanity shall be his recompense.

Knowing that ye were redeemed from your vain behavior inherited from fathers, not with perishable silver or gold,

And cast ye the unprofitable bondman into the outer darkness. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.