14 Bible Verses about Worldly Ambition

Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field,
Until there is no more room,
So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land!

A Song of Ascents, of David.
O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.

That the triumphing of the wicked is short,
And the joy of the godless momentary?
“Though his loftiness reaches the heavens,
And his head touches the clouds,
He perishes forever like his refuse;
Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
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“He flies away like a dream, and they cannot find him;
Even like a vision of the night he is chased away.
“The eye which saw him sees him no longer,
And his place no longer beholds him.

“They are exalted a little while, then they are gone;
Moreover, they are brought low and like everything gathered up;
Even like the heads of grain they are cut off.

Their inner thought is that their houses are forever
And their dwelling places to all generations;
They have called their lands after their own names.
But man in his pomp will not endure;
He is like the beasts that perish.
This is the way of those who are foolish,
And of those after them who approve their words. Selah.
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As sheep they are appointed for Sheol;
Death shall be their shepherd;
And the upright shall rule over them in the morning,
And their form shall be for Sheol to consume
So that they have no habitation.
But God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol,
For He will receive me. Selah.
Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich,
When the glory of his house is increased;
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
His glory will not descend after him.
Though while he lives he congratulates himself—
And though men praise you when you do well for yourself—
He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They will never see the light.
Man in his pomp, yet without understanding,
Is like the beasts that perish.

What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask.

He who loves transgression loves strife;
He who raises his door seeks destruction.

“How you have fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning, son of the dawn!
You have been cut down to the earth,
You who have weakened the nations!
“But you said in your heart,
‘I will ascend to heaven;
I will raise my throne above the stars of God,
And I will sit on the mount of assembly
In the recesses of the north.
‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.’
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“Nevertheless you will be thrust down to Sheol,
To the recesses of the pit.

‘Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Because it is high in stature and has set its top among the clouds, and its heart is haughty in its loftiness, therefore I will give it into the hand of a despot of the nations; he will thoroughly deal with it. According to its wickedness I have driven it away.

“Furthermore, wine betrays the haughty man,
So that he does not stay at home.
He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
And he is like death, never satisfied.
He also gathers to himself all nations
And collects to himself all peoples.

“Because you have looted many nations,
All the remainder of the peoples will loot you—
Because of human bloodshed and violence done to the land,
To the town and all its inhabitants.
“Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house
To put his nest on high,
To be delivered from the hand of calamity!

“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
And founds a town with violence!