77 Bible Verses about Futility

O remember how short my time is, for what vanity thou have created all the sons of men!

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

Man, who is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. He comes forth like a flower, and is cut down. He too flees as a shadow, and does not continue.

LORD, make me to know my end, and the measure of my days, what it is. Let me know how frail I am. Behold, thou have made my days [as] handbreadths, and my life-time is as nothing before thee. Surely every man at his best condition is altogether vanity. Selah.

The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness of it is as the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of LORD blows upon it. Surely the people is grass.

men who know not of the morrow. For what is your life? For it will be a vapor that appears for a little while, and then also vanishes away--

It is all one thing. Therefore I say, He destroys 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 the place thereof shall know it no more.

Surely every man walks in a shadow. Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heaps up, and knows not who shall gather them.

It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of toil, [for] so he gives sleep to his beloved.

Behold, is it not of LORD of hosts that the peoples labor for the fire, and the nations weary themselves for vanity?

For the sun rose up with the burning heat, and withered the grass. And the flower of it fell, and the beauty of its appearance perished. So also the rich man will fade away among his pursuits.

LORD knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, He who catches the wise in their craftiness, and again, Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are vain.

Because, although knowing God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were they thankful, but became vain in their reasonings and their heart was darkened without understanding.

This I say therefore, and solemnly declare in Lord, for you to walk no longer as also the other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the callousness of their heart.

We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud, even of his arrogance, and his pride, and his wrath. His boastings are nothing.

We have heard of the pride of Moab, [that] he is very proud, his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart. I know his wrath, says LORD, that it is nothing. His boastings have wrought nothing.

He did a mighty work by his arm. He scattered the proud in the mentality of their heart. He brought down potentates from thrones, and raised up lowly men.

Thus says LORD: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from LORD.

Give us help against the adversary, for vain is the help of man.

Give us help against the adversary, for vain is the help of man.

Put not your trust in rulers, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth. In that very day his thoughts perish.

Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for how is he to be accounted of?

Woe to the rebellious sons, says LORD, who take counsel, but not of me, and who make a league, but not of my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.read more.
For their rulers are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed because of a people who cannot profit them, who are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek LORD! Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh, and not spirit. And when LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they shall all be consumed together.

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 rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them. And they followed vanity, and became vain, and [went] after the nations that were round about them, c

And turn ye not aside after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.

I hate those who regard lying vanities, but I trust in LORD.

Thus says LORD: What unrighteousness 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 together brutish and foolish, the instruction of idols! It is but a block of wood.

O LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to thee the nations shall come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, [even] vanity and things in whic

Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

And when they shall say to you, Seek for those who have familiar spirits and for the wizards, who chirp and who mutter, should not a people seek for their God? On behalf of the living [seek] to the dead? [Seek] to the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. And they shall pass through it, greatly distressed and hungry. And it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and turn their faces upward.read more.
And they shall look to the earth, and, behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish, and into thick darkness [to be] driven away.

They have seen falsehood and lying divination, who say, LORD says, but LORD has not sent them. And they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed. Have ye not seen a FALSE vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, in that ye say, LORD says, albeit I have not spoken? Therefore thus says lord LORD: Because ye have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says lord LORD.read more.
And my hand shall be against the prophets who see FALSE visions, and who divine lies. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the

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.

And it was so, when midday was past, that they prophesied until the time of the offering of the [evening] oblation, but there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.

And it shall come to pass, when Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself upon the high place, and shall come to his sanctuary to pray, that he shall not prevail.

They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and do not speak. They must be carried, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor is it in them to do good.

For before these days Theudas rose up saying himself to be somebody, to whom a number of men, about four hundred, bonded themselves, who was killed. And all, as many as were persuaded by him, were dispersed and developed into nothi After this man Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the registration, and drew a considerable crowd behind him. That man was also destroyed, and all, as many as were persuaded by him, were scattered. And now I say to you, keep away from these men, and let them go, because if the project or this work is from men, it will be overthrown,

If ye died with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why do ye submit to rules, as though living in the world? Do not handle, nor taste, nor touch (which are all things for consumption by use), according to the commandments and teachings of men?read more.
Which having, are indeed a matter of wisdom in will-worship, and self-mortification, and austerity of the body--not in any value against indulgence of the flesh.

Bring no more vain oblations. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies--I cannot bear iniquity and the solemn meeting.

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 LORD of hosts?

This people comes near me with their mouth, and honors me with their lips, but their heart is far distant from me. And in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

And having answered, he said to them, Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far distant from me. But in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

And I, brothers, could not speak to you as to spiritual, but as to carnal, as to the childlike in Christ. I gave you milk to drink and not solid food, for ye were not yet able. But not even yet are ye able, for ye are still carnal. For whereas among you is envy and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk according to man?

If any man among you seems to be religious, not bridling his tongue but deceiving his heart, this man's religion is futile.

But avoid foolish questionings, and genealogies, and contentions, and legal fightings, for they are useless and vain.

Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.

Thy prophets have seen FALSE and foolish visions for thee. And they have not uncovered thine iniquity, to bring back thy captivity, but have seen for thee FALSE oracles and causes of banishment.

Let no man deceive you by empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Let no man umpire against you insisting on self-mortification, and worship of the heavenly agents, intruding in things that he has not seen, vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh,

From which some having swerved have turned aside to empty talk,

Remind them of these things, solemnly testifying in the sight of the Lord, not to brawl verbally, to nothing useful, to the ruin of those who hear.

For, uttering swollen things of vanity, they entice (to sensuality by lusts of flesh) those who actually escaped from those who live in error,

I am the grapevine, ye are the branches. He who dwells in me, and I in him, this man bears much fruit, because without me ye can do nothing.

And if any man builds upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become manifest. For the day will make it known, because it is revealed by fire. And the fire will test each man's work of what kind it is. If any man's work that he built on will remain, he will receive benefit.read more.
If any man's work will be burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, but so as through fire.

For we also are having good-news preached, just as also those men, but the word of hearing did not benefit those men, not having been mixed together with faith in those who heard.

And every man who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, will be compared to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the torrents came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell. And great was the fall of it.

Of every man who hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understands it, evil comes, and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is that which was sown by the wayside. And that which was sown upon the rocky places, this is he who hears the word, and straightaway receiving it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, instead it is temporary. And when tribulation or persecution develops because of the word, straightaway he is caused to stumble.read more.
And that which was sown in the thorns, this is he who hears the word, and the care of this age, and the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

But become ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Because if any man is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this resembles a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, and goes away, and straightaway forgets what kind of man he was.

But do thou want to know, O vain man, that faith apart from works is dead?

This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them, and to worship them, shall even be as this sash, which is good for nothing.

Why do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate vain {things (LXX/NT)}?

A wicked man shall see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of wicked men shall perish.

Thou have set at nothing all those who err from thy statutes, for their deceit is falsehood.

The hope of the righteous [is] gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.

When a wicked man dies, [his] expectation shall perish, and the hope of iniquity perishes.

Thus says LORD of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire. And the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire, and they shall be weary.

And do not associate with the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead even rebuke them.

Surely in vain I have cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in innocence,

For thou should not say, There shall be no visitation to a man, [whereas] visitation [is] to him from LORD.

But I said, I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. Yet surely the justice [due] to me is with LORD, and my recompense with my God.

Knowing that ye were redeemed from your vain behavior inherited from fathers, not with perishable silver or gold,

If therefore any man purges himself from these things, he will be a vessel for esteem, sanctified and useful to the master, prepared for every good work.