'Vain' in the Bible

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

Now David had said, “Surely in vain I have guarded all that this man has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him; and he has returned me evil for good.

They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them.

“I am accounted wicked,Why then should I toil in vain?

“She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers;Though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned;

Why are the nations in an uproarAnd the peoples devising a vain thing?

I hate those who regard vain idols,But I trust in the Lord.

O give us help against the adversary,For deliverance by man is in vain.

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pureAnd washed my hands in innocence;

Oh give us help against the adversary,For deliverance by man is in vain.

A Song of Ascents, of Solomon.Unless the Lord builds the house,They labor in vain who build it;Unless the Lord guards the city,The watchman keeps awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early,To retire late,To eat the bread of painful labors;For He gives to His beloved even in his sleep.

For they speak against You wickedly,And Your enemies take Your name in vain.

He who tills his land will have plenty of bread,But he who pursues worthless things lacks sense.

Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain,But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

Even Egypt, whose help is vain and empty.Therefore, I have called her“Rahab who has been exterminated.”

But I said, “I have toiled in vain,I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity;Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the Lord,And My reward with My God.”

“They will not labor in vain,Or bear children for calamity;For they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord,And their descendants with them.

“In vain I have struck your sons;They accepted no chastening.Your sword has devoured your prophetsLike a destroying lion.

And you, O desolate one, what will you do?Although you dress in scarlet,Although you decorate yourself with ornaments of gold,Although you enlarge your eyes with paint,In vain you make yourself beautiful.Your lovers despise you;They seek your life.

The bellows blow fiercely,The lead is consumed by the fire;In vain the refining goes on,But the wicked are not separated.

Go up to Gilead and obtain balm,O virgin daughter of Egypt!In vain have you multiplied remedies;There is no healing for you.

Then they will know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would inflict this disaster on them.”’

Then they will comfort you when you see their conduct and actions, for you will know that I have not done in vain whatever I did to it,” declares the Lord God.

“Those who regard vain idolsForsake their faithfulness,

For the teraphim speak iniquity,And the diviners see lying visionsAnd tell false dreams;They comfort in vain.Therefore the people wander like sheep,They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept His charge, and that we have walked in mourning before the Lord of hosts?