'Vain' in the Bible

I {in turn} will do this to you: then I will summon onto you horror, the wasting disease, and the fever that wastes eyes and that drains away life; and you shall sow your seed {in vain}, and your enemies shall eat it.

And your strength shall be consumed {in vain}; and your land shall not give its produce, and the land's trees shall not give their fruit.

Then David strapped on his sword over his fighting attire, but he tried in vain to walk [around], for he was not trained to use [them]. So David said to Saul, "I am not able to walk with these, because I am not trained to use [them]." So David removed them.

Now David had said, "Surely {in vain} I guarded all that this fellow had in the desert. And nothing was missed of all that [was] his, but he returned evil against me in place of good!

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].

[If] I shall be [declared] guilty, why then should I labor in vain?

Look, you all have seen, and {why in the world} {have you become altogether vain}?

It deals cruelly with its young ones, as [if] [they were] not its [own], as [if] without fear [that] its labor [were] in vain,

Why are nations in tumult, and countries plotting in vain?

Surely a man walks about as a [mere] {shadow}; surely in vain they bustle about. He heaps up [possessions] but does not know who [will] gather them [in].

Do not trust in extortion, and do not put vain [confidence] in robbery. If wealth increases, do not set [your] heart [on it].

Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure, and washed my hands in innocence.

Unless Yahweh builds a house, its builders labor at it in vain. Unless Yahweh guards a city, a guard watches in vain.

[It is] in vain for you who rise early [and] sit late, eating the bread of anxious toil, [when] thus he provides for his beloved in [his] sleep.

who speak against you deceitfully. Your enemies take [your name] in vain.

for "in vain is the net scattered, in the sight of any {winged bird}."

Charm [is] deceit and beauty [is] vain; [but] a woman who fears Yahweh shall be praised.

I have seen all these things in my vain life: Sometimes a righteous man perishes in [spite of] his righteousness, and sometimes a wicked man lives a long life in [spite of] his evil.

Enjoy life with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which he gives you under the sun, because this [is] your lot in life and in the toil with which you toil under the sun.

I have spoken not in secrecy, in a place, a land, of darkness, I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, 'Seek me {in vain}!' I, Yahweh, [am] speaking righteousness, declaring uprightness.

But I myself said, "I have labored in vain; I have used up my strength for nothing and vanity! Nevertheless, my justice [is] with Yahweh, and my reward [is] with my God."

Thus says Yahweh: "What injustice did your ancestors find in me that they were far from me, and they went after the vanity, and they became vain?

"For {in vain} I have struck your children. They accepted no discipline. Your sword devoured your prophets, like a ravening lion.

And you, devastated one, what [do] you do, that you put on crimson, that you adorn yourself [with] ornaments of gold, that you make your eyes look bigger with the eye make-up? In vain you beautify yourself. [Your] lovers reject you; they seek your life.

[The] bellows are burned up, lead is consumed by fire. {In vain} {he keeps on refining}, but [the] wicked are not torn apart.

Go up [to] Gilead and take balm, O virgin of the daughter of Egypt. {In vain} you make use of many medicines; there is no healing for you.

Still our eyes failed, [looking for] our help in vain; in our watchtower, we kept watch for a nation that could not save.

And they will know that I [am] Yahweh; not {in vain} I spoke to bring to them this evil." '

And she saw that she was waiting [in vain]; her hope was destroyed, and she took one from her cubs, [and] she made him a fierce lion.

when seeing a false vision for you in vain, when practicing divination for you falsely, to give you on [the] neck of [the] profane ones of [the] wicked, {whose day has come}, {the time of final punishment}.

They utter words of vain oaths [when] {making covenants}, and judgment blossoms like a poisonous plant on the furrows of the field.

Those who worship vain idols forsake their loyal love.

Because the household gods speak deceit, and those who practice divination see a lie, and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain. Therefore [the people] wander like sheep; they are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

"Who also among you will shut [the temple] doors [so that] you will not kindle fire in vain [on] my altar? I take no pleasure in you," says Yahweh of hosts, "and {I will not accept} an offering from your hand.