30 Bible Verses about Useless Labour
Most Relevant Verses
Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.
Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that peoples labor merely for fire, and nations weary themselves for nothing?
Now David had said, "Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good.
Our eyes failed, ever watching vainly for help; in our watching we watched for a nation which could not save.
And your strength shall be spent in vain, for your land shall not yield its increase, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit.
"Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad wall of Babylon shall be leveled to the ground, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. The peoples labor for nothing, and the nations weary themselves only for fire."
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.
The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain the refining goes on, for the wicked are not removed.
And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life.
But I said, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the LORD, and my recompense with my God."
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Egypt's help is worthless and empty; therefore I have called her "Rahab who sits still."
In vain have I struck your children; they took no correction; your own sword devoured your prophets like a ravening lion.
and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
and separate himself to the LORD for the days of his separation and bring a male lamb a year old for a guilt offering. But the previous period shall be void, because his separation was defiled.
They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord GOD."
And they shall know that I am the LORD. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them."
I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain.
For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.
They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.
But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be.
holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
For you yourselves know, brothers, that our coming to you was not in vain.
