33 Bible Verses about Useless Endeavour

"Vanity of vanities!" says the Teacher, "Vanity of vanities! All [is] vanity!"

"Vanity of vanity!" says the Teacher. "Everything [is] vanity!"

For the fate of {humans} and the fate of the beast is {the same}. The death of the one is like the death of the other, for {both are mortal}. Man has no advantage over the beast, for both are fleeting.

For if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in all of them! Let him remember that the days of the darkness will be many-- all that is coming [is] vanity!

I saw all the works that are done under the sun. Look! Everything [is] vanity and chasing wind.

So {I dedicated myself} to learn about wisdom and [to] learn about delusion and folly. However, I discovered that this also [is] chasing wind.

Yet when I considered all the effort which I expended and the toil with which I toiled to do, then behold, "Everything [is] vanity and chasing wind! There is nothing profitable under the sun!"

So I hated life because the work done under the sun [is] grievous to me. For everything [is] vanity and chasing wind!

For to the person who [is] good in his eyes, he gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and heaping up only to give [it] to [him who is] pleasing to him. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

I also realized that all [of the] toil and all [of] the skillful work that is done--it [is] envy between one man and {another}. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

There is no end to all the people, to all who were before him. Yet the later generation will not rejoice in him, for this also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

{Better to be content with what your eyes see than for your soul to constantly crave more}. This also [is] vanity and chasing wind!

I said {to myself}, "Come! I will test pleasure {to see whether it is worthwhile}." But look, "This also [is] vanity!"

So I said {to myself}, "{If I also suffer the same fate as the fool}, {what advantage is my great wisdom}?" So I said {to myself}, "This also [is] vanity!"

And who knows [whether] he will be wise or foolish? Yet he will exercise control of all [the fruit of] my toil with which I toiled wisely under the sun. This also [is] vanity!

For although a person may toil with great wisdom and skill, he must leave his reward to someone who has not toiled for it. This also [is] vanity and a great calamity.

All his days [are] painful, his labor [brings] grief, and his heart cannot rest at night. This also [is] vanity!

Sometimes a man is all alone with no companion; he also has neither son nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his toil, and his eye is not satisfied with wealth. [He laments,] "For whom am I toiling and depriving {myself} of pleasure?" This also [is] vanity--it is an unhappy business!

Whoever loves money is not satisfied [with] money, and whoever loves wealth [is] not [satisfied with] profit. This also [is] vanity!

God gives a man wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing his heart desires; yet God does not enable him to enjoy it--instead someone else ends up enjoying it. This [is] vanity--indeed, it [is] a grievous ill!

Like the sound of thorns under a pot, so also the laughter of fools. This also [is] vanity!

Meanwhile, I saw the wicked being [honorably] buried, but those who came and went from the holy place were forgotten in the city, even though they had done so. This also [is] vanity!

There [is] a vanity that happens on earth: sometimes the righteous suffer what the wicked deserve, and sometimes the wicked receive what the righteous deserve. I said, "This also [is] vanity!"

I turned again and saw another vanity under the sun.

For the creation has been subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of the one who subjected [it], in hope

They rejected his statutes, his covenant which he {made} with their ancestors, and his warnings which he gave to them; and they went after the idols, became vain, and [went] after all the nations which [were] all around them, which Yahweh had commanded them not to do as they [did].

He who works his land will have plenty of food, but he who follows worthless things lacks {sense}.

And he consumed their days with futility their years with terror.

So {I had to inherit} months of worthlessness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

Let him not trust in emptiness--he will be deceiving himself-- for worthlessness will be his recompense.

[because you] know that you were redeemed from your futile way of life inherited from your ancestors not with perishable things like silver or gold,

And throw the worthless slave into the outer darkness--in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!'

But the sons of the kingdom will be thrown out into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!"