'Worthless' in the Bible
The seven thin, ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven worthless, scorched heads of grain are seven years of famine.
"You are not to make worthless idols, images, or pillars for yourselves, nor set up for yourselves carved images to bow down to them in the land, because I am the LORD your God.
the people complained against the LORD and Moses. "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" they asked. "There's no food and water, and we're tired of this worthless bread."
You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way.
that worthless men have come from among you to entice those who live in the towns. They may say, "Let's go and serve other gods that you haven't known.'
Take heed to thee lest there be a word in thy heart -- worthless, saying, Near is the seventh year, the year of release; and thine eye is evil against thy needy brother, and thou dost not give to him, and he hath called concerning thee unto Jehovah, and it hath been in thee sin;
He may have him beaten forty times, but no more. He is not to be beaten with more stripes than these and he is not to be degraded [that is, treated like an animal] in your sight.
They have provoked My jealousywith their so-called gods;they have enraged Me with their worthless idols.So I will provoke their jealousywith an inferior people;I will enrage them with a foolish nation.
For it is not an empty or trivial matter for you; indeed it is your [very] life. By [honoring and obeying] this word you will live long in the land, which you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”
So they gave him 70 pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-berith. Abimelech hired worthless and reckless men with this money, and they followed him.
So Jephthah escaped from his brothers and lived in the territory of Tob, where worthless men gathered themselves around him and went out on raiding parties with him.
While they were celebrating, behold, the men of the city, certain worthless fellows, surrounded the house, pounding the door; and they spoke to the owner of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house that we may have relations with him.”
Now then, deliver up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove this wickedness from Israel.” But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel.
Don't consider your maid servant a worthless woman. Rather, all this time I've been speaking because I'm very anxious and distressed."
Now the sons of Eli were worthless men who did not know the LORD.
But certain worthless men said, “How can this one deliver us?” And they despised him and did not bring him any present. But he kept silent.
Don’t turn away to follow worthless things that can’t profit or deliver you; they are worthless.
Saul and the troops spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, cattle, and choice animals, as well as the young rams and the best of everything else. They were not willing to destroy them, but they did destroy all the worthless and unwanted things.
Now consider carefully what you must do, because there is certain to be trouble for our master and his entire family. He is such a worthless fool nobody can talk to him!”
My lord should pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name is Nabal, and stupidity is all he knows. I, your servant, didn’t see my lord’s young men whom you sent.
but all the corrupt and worthless men among those who had gone with David argued, “Because they didn’t go with us, we will not give any of the plunder we recovered to them except for each man’s wife and children. They may take them and go.”
Then David returned to bless his household. But [his wife] Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, “How glorious and distinguished was the king of Israel today, who uncovered himself and stripped [off his kingly robes] in the eyes of his servants’ maids like one of the riffraff who shamelessly uncovers himself!”
Shimei said as he cursed: “Get out, get out, you worthless murderer!
Now a worthless fellow happened to be there whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the trumpet and said,“We have no portion in David,Nor do we have inheritance in the son of Jesse;Every man to his tents, O Israel!”
When the breakers of death compassed me, The streams of the worthless terrify me,
As to the worthless -- As a thorn driven away are all of them, For -- not by hand are they taken;
This happened because of all the sins of Baasha and those of his son Elah, which they committed and caused Israel to commit, provoking the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols.
He followed the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sins that he caused Israel to commit, provoking the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols.
and seat two worthless men before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king.’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”
Then the two worthless men came in and sat before him; and the worthless men testified against him, even against Naboth, before the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king.” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death with stones.
They rejected His statutes and His covenant He had made with their ancestors and the decrees He had given them. They pursued worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the surrounding nations the Lord had commanded them not to imitate.
For all the gods of the nations are worthless, but the Lord made the heavens.
Then worthless and wicked men gathered around him to resist Rehoboam son of Solomon when Rehoboam was young, inexperienced, and unable to assert himself against them.
Surely He knows which people are worthless.If He sees iniquity, will He not take note of it?
But you coat the truth with lies;you are all worthless doctors.
Your maxims are just worthless proverbs; your defensive arguments are made of clay."
Let him not put trust in worthless things, being led astray,for what he gets in exchange will prove worthless.
If this is not true, then who can prove me a liarand show that my speech is worthless?
Look! All of you have been watching, so why have you become so completely worthless?
“They are the sons of [worthless and nameless] fools,They have been driven out of the land.
who says to a king, “Worthless man!”and to nobles, “Wicked men!”?
Job uselessly opens his mouthAnd multiplies words without knowledge [drawing the worthless conclusion that the righteous have no more advantage than the wicked].”
The wicked [those who live in disobedience to God’s law] are not so,But they are like the chaff [worthless and without substance] which the wind blows away.
How long, exalted men, will my honor be insulted?How long will you love what is worthlessand pursue a lie?Selah
The wicked wander everywhere,and what is worthless is exalted by the human race.
Compassed me have cords of death, And streams of the worthless make me afraid.
I do not sit with the worthlessor associate with hypocrites.
I hate those who are devoted to worthless idols,but I trust in the Lord.
I am forgotten, like a dead man no one thinks about; I am regarded as worthless, like a broken jar.
Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. Surely they accumulate worthless wealth without knowing who will eventually haul it away."
Give us aid against the foe,for human help is worthless.
For all the gods of the nations are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
All who worship idols are ashamed, those who boast about worthless idols. All the gods bow down before him.
I set not before mine eyes a worthless thing, The work of those turning aside I have hated, It adhereth not to me.
Give us aid against the foe,for human help is worthless.
Turn my eyesfrom looking at what is worthless;give me life in Your ways.
A worthless person, a wicked mangoes around speaking dishonestly,
He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread; but he that followeth the worthless is void of understanding.
A worthless man digs up evil,and his speech is like a scorching fire.
A worthless witness mocks justice,and a wicked mouth swallows iniquity.
“It’s worthless, it’s worthless!” the buyer says,but after he is on his way, he gloats.
He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread; but he that followeth the worthless shall have poverty enough.
“Bring your worthless offerings no longer,Incense is an abomination to Me.New moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies—I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly.
Their land is full of worthless idols; they worship the product of their own hands, what their own fingers have fashioned.
The people will oppress one another,man against man, neighbor against neighbor;the youth will act arrogantly toward the elder,and the worthless toward the honorable.
He broke up the soil, cleared it of stones,and planted it with the finest vines.He built a tower in the middle of itand even dug out a winepress there.He expected it to yield good grapes,but it yielded worthless grapes.
What more could I have done for My vineyardthan I did?Why, when I expected a yield of good grapes,did it yield worthless grapes?
As my hand hath got to the kingdoms of a worthless thing, and their graven images, Greater than Jerusalem and than Samaria,
Do I not -- as I have done to Samaria, And to her worthless things, So do to Jerusalem and to her grievous things?
But you are thrown out without a grave,like a worthless branch,covered by those slain with the swordand dumped into a rocky pit like a trampled corpse.
Egypt’s help is completely worthless;therefore, I call her:Rahab Who Just Sits.
Look, you are nothingand your work is worthless.Anyone who chooses you is detestable.
“Behold, all of them are false;Their works are worthless,Their molten images are wind and emptiness.
Now, all the forming of images means nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Their own witnesses cannot see, and they know nothing. So they will be put to shame.
Who forms a god and casts an idol that will prove worthless?
“Woe (judgment is coming) to him who quarrels with his Maker—A [worthless] piece of broken pottery among other broken pieces [equally worthless]!Shall the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’Or does the thing say, ‘He has no hands’?
For the Lord, who created the heavens (He is God, who formed the earth and made it; He established it and did not create it to be a wasteland, but formed it to be inhabited) says this,“I am the Lord, and there is no one else.
No one makes claims justly;no one pleads honestly.They trust in empty and worthless words;they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.
This is what the Lord says:What fault did your fathers find in Methat they went so far from Me,followed worthless idols,and became worthless themselves?
Listen—the cry of my dear peoplefrom a far away land,“Is the Lord no longer in Zion,her King not within her?”Why have they provoked me to angerwith their carved images,with their worthless foreign idols?
for the customs of the peoples are worthless.Someone cuts down a tree from the forest;it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.
They are both stupid and foolish,instructed by worthless idolsmade of wood!
They are worthless, a work to be mocked.At the time of their punishmentthey will be destroyed.
The Lord called your name,“A green olive tree, beautiful in fruit and form”;With the noise of a great tumultHe has kindled fire on it,And its branches are worthless.
Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the waistband from the place where I had hidden it; and lo, the waistband was ruined, it was totally worthless.
This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this waistband which is totally worthless.
But the Lord said to me, “These prophets are prophesying a lie in My name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.
Can any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?Or can the skies alone give showers?Are You not the Lord our God?We therefore put our hope in You,for You have done all these things.
Therefore, this is what the Lord says:If you return, I will restore you;you will stand in My presence.And if you speak noble words,rather than worthless ones,you will be My spokesman.It is they who must return to you;you must not return to them.
Lord, my strength and my stronghold,my refuge in a time of distress,the nations will come to Youfrom the ends of the earth, and they will say,“Our fathers inherited only lies,worthless idols of no benefit at all.”
Yet my people have forgotten me, and they burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their journey on the ancient paths. They walk on trails, on a way that is not built up.
This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are making you worthless. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the Lord’s mouth.
They are worthless, a work to be mocked.At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.
"Look, O Lord! Consider that I have become worthless!"
(Nun) Your prophets saw visions for you that were worthless lies. They failed to expose your sin so as to restore your fortunes. They saw oracles for you that were worthless lies.
[And as for us,] yet our eyes failed,Looking in vain for help.Watching [from the towers] we watchedFor a nation that could not save.
There will no longer be worthless visions and flattering divinations in the midst of Israel's house.
"Son of man, the house of Israel has become slag to me. All of them are like bronze, tin, iron, and lead in the furnace; they are the worthless slag of silver.
Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "And I will destroy [the] idols, and I will put an end to [the] worthless idols from Memphis. And there will {no longer be} a prince from the land of Egypt, and I will put fear in the land of Egypt.