14 Bible Verses about Worldly Ambition

Come, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

Woe unto them that add house to house, that join field to field, until there is no more room, and that ye dwell yourselves alone in the midst of the land!

{A Song of degrees. Of David.} Jehovah, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters, and in things too wonderful for me. Surely I have restrained and composed my soul, like a weaned child with its mother: my soul within me is as a weaned child.

The exultation of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly man but for a moment? Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, Like his own dung doth he perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, Where is he?read more.
He flieth away as a dream, and is not found; and is chased away as a vision of the night. The eye which saw him shall see him not again; and his place beholdeth him no more.

They are exalted for a little, and are no more; they are laid low; like all other are they gathered, and are cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.

Their inward thought is, that their houses are for ever,their dwelling-places from generation to generation: they call the lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly, yet they that come after them delight in their sayings. Selah.read more.
Like sheep are they laid in Sheol: Death feedeth on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their comeliness shall be for Sheol to consume, that there be no habitation for them. But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol: for he will receive me. Selah. Be not afraid when a man becometh rich, when the glory of his house is increased: For when he dieth, he shall carry nothing away; his glory shall not descend after him. Though he blessed his soul in his lifetime, and men will praise thee when thou doest well to thyself, -- It shall go to the generation of his fathers: they shall never see light. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.

Whence come wars and whence fightings among you? Is it not thence, from your pleasures, which war in your members? Ye lust and have not: ye kill and are full of envy, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war; ye have not because ye ask not.

He loveth transgression that loveth a quarrel; he that maketh high his gate seeketh destruction.

How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning! Thou art cut down to the ground, that didst prostrate the nations! And thou that didst say in thy heart, I will ascend into the heavens, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit upon the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High:read more.
none the less art thou brought down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.

Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast lifted up thyself in stature, ... and he hath set his top amidst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height, I have given him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.

And moreover, the wine is treacherous: he is a proud man, and keepeth not at rest, he enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and he is like death and cannot be satisfied; and he assembleth unto him all nations, and gathereth unto him all peoples.

Because thou hast plundered many nations, all the rest of the peoples shall plunder thee; because of men's blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city, and all that dwell therein. Woe to him that getteth iniquitous gain to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the grasp of evil!

Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by unrighteousness!