'Vain' in the Bible

Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

I also will do this unto you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruit.

Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain: for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

For it is no vain thing for you; because it is your life, and through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go over the Jordan to possess it.

And they gave him threescore and ten pieces of silver out of the house of Baal-berith, wherewith Abimelech hired vain and light fellows, who followed him.

Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him.

and turn ye not aside; for then would ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.

Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath returned me evil for good.

Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to-day, who uncovered himself to-day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!

And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified unto them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the nations that were round about them, concerning whom Jehovah had charged them that they should not do like them.

Thou sayest (but they are but vain words), There is counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou hast rebelled against me?

I shall be condemned; Why then do I labor in vain?

But vain man is void of understanding, Yea, man is born as a wild ass's colt.

Should a wise man make answer with vain knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?

Shall vain words have an end? Or what provoketh thee that thou answerest?

How then comfort ye me in vain, Seeing in your answers there remaineth only falsehood?

Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; Why then are ye become altogether vain?

She dealeth hardly with her young ones, as if they were not hers: Though her labor be in vain,'she is without fear;

Behold, the hope of him is in vain: Will not one be cast down even at the sight of him?

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

A horse is a vain thing for safety; Neither doth he deliver any by his great power.

Surely every man walketh in a vain show; Surely they are disquieted in vain: He heapeth up riches , and knoweth not who shall gather them.

Give us help against the adversary; For vain is the help of man.

Trust not in oppression, And become not vain in robbery: If riches increase, set not your heart thereon .

Surely in vain have I cleansed my heart, And washed my hands in innocency;

Give us help against the adversary; For vain is the help of man.

Except Jehovah build the house, They labor in vain that build it: Except Jehovah keep the city, The watchman waketh but in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early, To take rest late, To eat the bread of toil; For'so he giveth unto his beloved sleep.

For they speak against thee wickedly, And thine enemies take thy name in vain.

For in vain is the net spread In the sight of any bird:

He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread; But he that followeth after vain persons is void of understanding.

He that tilleth his land shall have plenty of bread; But he that followeth after vain persons'shall have poverty enough.

Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain; But a woman that feareth Jehovah, she shall be praised.

For who knoweth what is good for man in his life, all the days of his vain life which he spendeth as a shadow? for who can tell a man what shall be after him under the sun?

Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; new moon and sabbath, the calling of assemblies,- I cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting.

For Egypt helpeth in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth still.

I say, thy counsel and strength for the war are but vain words: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou hast rebelled against me?

I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I, Jehovah, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.

But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nought and vanity; yet surely the justice due to me is with Jehovah, and my recompense with my God.

Thou wast wearied with the length of thy way; yet saidst thou not, It is in vain: thou didst find a quickening of thy strength; therefore thou wast not faint.

They shall not labor in vain, nor bring forth for calamity; for they are the seed of the blessed of Jehovah, and their offspring with them.

thus saith Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, It is in vain; no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

Truly in vain is the help that is looked for from the hills, the tumult on the mountains: truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel.

And thou, when thou art made desolate, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou enlargest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.

The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.

But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, saith Jehovah, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all, saith Jehovah.

Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain dost thou use many medicines; there is no healing for thee.

For, lo, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain.

Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.

And they shall know that I am Jehovah: I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them.

They speak vain words, swearing falsely in making covenants: therefore judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams, they comfort in vain: therefore they go their way like sheep, they are afflicted, because there is no shepherd.

Oh that there were one among you that would shut the doors, that ye might not kindle fire on mine altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, saith Jehovah of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your hand.

Ye have said, It is vain to serve God; and what profit is it that we have kept his charge, and that we have walked mournfully before Jehovah of hosts?

And in praying use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

But in vain do they worship me, Teaching as their doctrines the precepts of men.

who by the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of our father David thy servant, didst say, Why did the Gentiles rage, And the peoples imagine vain things?

and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, that ye should turn from these vain things unto a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is:

because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened.

for he is a minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is a minister of God, an avenger for wrath to him that doeth evil.

and again, The Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise that they are vain.

by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast the word which I preached unto you, except ye believed in vain.

But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

and if Christ hath not been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain.

and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

Wherefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not vain in the Lord.

And working together with him we entreat also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain

And I went up by revelation; and I laid before them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles but privately before them who were of repute, lest by any means I should be running, or had run, in vain.

Did ye suffer so many things in vain? if it be indeed in vain.

I am afraid of you, lest by any means I have bestowed labor upon you in vain.

holding forth the word of life; that I may have whereof to glory in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain neither labor in vain.

Take heed lest there shall be any one that maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ:

For yourselves, brethren, know our entering in unto you, that it hath not been found vain:

For this cause I also, when I could no longer forbear, sent that I might know your faith, lest by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor should be in vain.

from which things some having swerved have turned aside unto vain talking;

For there are many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision,

but shun foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and fightings about law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

If any man thinketh himself to be religious, while he bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his heart, this man's religion is vain.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is barren?

Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?

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