77 Bible Verses about Futility

Remember, I pray, how short my time is; why have You made all men in vain?

My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are ended without hope. Remember that my life is a breath; my eye shall no more see good.

Man born of woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and withers; he also flees as a shadow, and does not stand.

O Jehovah, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is; I know how frail I am. Behold, You have made my days as a handbreadth, and my age is as nothing before You. Surely every man standing is altogether vanity. Selah.

The voice said, Cry! And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the beauty of it is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Spirit of Jehovah blows on it; surely the people is grass.

who do not know of the morrow. For what is your life? For it is a vapor, which appears for a little time, and then disappears.

It is One, therefore I said, He is consuming the perfect and the wicked.

As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone; and its place shall know it no more.

Surely a man walks about like a shadow! Surely they are in an uproar in vain. He heaps up, and does not know who shall gather them.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so He gives His beloved sleep.

Behold, is it not for Jehovah of Hosts that the people labor only for fire; yea, the nations weary themselves only for vanity?

For the sun rose with the hot wind and dried up the grass, and its flower fell out, and the beauty of its appearance perished; so also the rich one will fade away in his ways.

Jehovah knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, "He takes the wise in their own craftiness." And again, "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain."

Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should not walk from now on as other nations walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.

We have heard of the pride of Moab; very proud; even of his vanity, and his pride, and his rage; not so are his babblings.

We have heard the pride of Moab (he is exceedingly proud), his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and his elevated heart. I know his wrath, says Jehovah, it is not so; his boast, but they have not done so.

He has worked power with His arm, He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart. He has put down rulers from their seats and exalted the lowly,

So says Jehovah, Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Jehovah.

Give us help against our foe; for vain is the help of man.

Give us help from trouble; for vain is the deliverance of man.

Do not put your trust in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no salvation. His breath goes forth; he returns to the earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.

Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostril; for in what is he to be esteemed?

Woe to the rebellious sons, says Jehovah, who make advice, but not of Me; and who cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit, that they add sin to sin; those who set out to go down to Egypt and have not asked at My mouth; to take refuge in the strength of Pharaoh and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt shall be your curse.read more.
For his rulers were at Zoan, and his ambassadors came to Hanes. They were all ashamed of a people who could not profit them, nor be a help nor gain, but a shame and also a reproach.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and lean on horses and trust in chariots, because it is great; and in horsemen, because they are so very strong, but they do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor do they seek Jehovah! Yet He also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back His Words, but will arise against the house of evil-doers and against the help of those who work iniquity. And Egypt is a man, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not Spirit. When Jehovah shall stretch out His hand, both he who helps shall fall, and he who is helped shall fall down, and they shall all cease together.

While we are, our eyes fail, for our help is vain; in our watching we have watched for a nation; it does not save.

And they rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He testified against them. And they went after the vain thing, and became vain, and after the nations around them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them not to do like them.

And do not turn aside to go after vanities, which cannot profit nor deliver. For they are vain.

I have hated those who take heed to lying vanities; but I trust in Jehovah.

So says Jehovah, What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that they have gone far from Me and have walked after vanity, and have become vain?

But they are all at once foolish and animal-like; the tree is an example of vanities.

O Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations shall come to You from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and there is no profit in them.

They who take heed to lying vanities forsake their kindness;

And when they shall say to you, Seek to the mediums and to wizards who peep and mutter; should not a people seek to their God, than for the living to the dead? To the Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because no light is in them. And they shall pass through it, hard-pressed and hungry; and it shall be, they shall be hungry; They shall rave and curse their king and their God, and look upward.read more.
And they shall look to the land; and behold, trouble and darkness and gloom of anguish! And they are driven away into darkness.

They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, Jehovah says. And Jehovah has not sent them; but they hoped to confirm their word. Did you not see a vain vision, and speak a lying divination? Yet you say, Jehovah says; although I have not spoken? Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah: Because you have spoken vanity and seen a lie, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord Jehovah.read more.
And My hand shall be against the prophets who see vanity and who divine a lie. They shall not be in the council of My people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord Jehovah.

For the family idols speak iniquity, and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams. They comfort in vain; therefore they wandered like a flock; they were troubled because there was no shepherd.

And it happened when midday was past, and when they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor anyone who paid attention.

And it shall be when it is seen that Moab is weary on the high place, he shall come to his sacred place to pray; but he shall not be able.

They are like a rounded post, and they cannot speak. They must surely be lifted, because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them; for they cannot do evil nor good, for it is not in them.

For before these days Theudas rose up, boasting himself to be somebody; a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves to him; who was slain. And all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to nothing. After this one, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the Registration, and drew away considerable people after him. Yet that one perished; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered. And now I say to you, Withdraw from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel or this work is of men, it will come to nothing.

If then you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to its ordinances: touch not, taste not, handle not; which things are all for corruption in the using, according to the commands and doctrines of men?read more.
These things indeed have a reputation of wisdom in self-imposed worship and humility, and unsparing severity of the body, but are not of any value for the satisfying of the flesh.

Bring no more vain sacrifice; incense is an abomination to Me; the new moon and sabbath, the going to meeting; I cannot endure evil and the assembly!

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 as mourners before Jehovah of Hosts?

"This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

But He answered and said to them, Well has Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, "This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. However, they worship Me in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men."

And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual ones, but as to fleshly, as to babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with solid food, for you were not yet able to bear it; nor are you able even now. For you are yet carnal. For in that there is among you envyings and strife and divisions, are you not carnal, and do you not walk according to men?

If anyone thinks to be religious among you, yet does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is vain.

But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions, and strivings about the Law, for they are unprofitable and vain.

Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot do any good.

Your prophets have seen false and foolish things for you, and they have not uncovered your iniquity, to turn away your captivity; but they have seen false oracles and seductions for you.

Let no man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience.

Let no one defraud you, delighting in humility and worship of the angels, intruding into things which he has not seen, without a cause being vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,

from which some, having swerved, have turned aside to foolish talking,

Put them in memory of these things, charging them before the Lord not to dispute about words to no profit, to the subverting of the hearers.

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they lure through the lusts of the flesh, by unbridled lust, the ones who were escaping from those who live in error;

I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

And if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one's work as to what kind it is. If anyone's work which he built remains, he shall receive a reward.read more.
If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

For also we have had the gospel preached, as well as them. But the Word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it.

And everyone who hears these sayings of Mine and does not do them shall be compared to a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain came down, and the floods came, and the wind blew and beat on that house. And it fell, and great was its fall.

When anyone hears the Word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown by the wayside. But that which was sown on the stony places is this: he who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy. But he has no root in himself, and is temporary. For when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the Word, he immediately stumbles.read more.
And that sown into the thorns is this: he who hears the Word; and the anxiety of this world, and the deceit of riches, choke the Word, and he becomes unfruitful.

But become doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the Word and not a doer, he is like a man studying his natural face in a mirror. For he studied himself and went his way, and immediately he forgot what he was like.

But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

This evil people, who refuse to hear My Words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be like this girdle, which is good for nothing.

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate on a vain thing?

The wicked shall see and be vexed; he shall gnash with his teeth and melt away; the desire of the wicked shall perish.

You have trampled all those who go astray from Your Precepts; for their deceit is falsehood.

The hope of the righteous is gladness; but the hope of the wicked shall perish.

When a wicked man dies, his hope shall perish; and the hope of evil ones shall be lost.

So says Jehovah of Hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be completely broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labor in vain, and the people shall be in the fire, and they shall be weary.

And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

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

For he has said, It profits a man nothing when he is accepted with God.

Then I said, I have labored in vain; I have spent My strength for nothing, and in vain; yet surely My judgment is with Jehovah, and My work with My God.

knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers,

Therefore if anyone purges himself from these, he shall be a vessel to honor, sanctified and useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.