14 Bible Verses about Worldly Ambition

Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may dwell alone in the midst of the earth!

[A song of ascents. Of David.] LORD, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.

That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? Though his haughtiness mounts up to the heavens, and his head reaches unto the clouds; Yet he shall perish forever like his own refuse: they who have seen him shall say, Where is he?read more.
He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found: yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. The eye also which saw him shall see him no more; neither shall his place any more behold him.

They are exalted for a little while, but are gone and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all others, and cut off as the tops of the ears of grain.

Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man being in honor abides not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah.read more.
Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me. Selah. Be not afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he shall carry nothing away: his glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lived he blessed his soul: and men will praise you, when you do well for yourself. He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honor, and understands not, is like the beasts that perish.

From where come wars and fightings among you? come they not from here, even of your lusts that war in your members? You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not.

He who loves transgression loves strife: and he who exalts his gate seeks destruction.

How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how are you cut down to the ground, who did weaken the nations! For you have said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the farthest sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.read more.
Yet you shall be brought down to sheol, to the sides of the pit.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Because you have lifted up yourself in height, and it has shot up its top among the thick boughs, and its heart is lifted up in its height; I have therefore delivered it into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with it: I have driven it out for its wickedness.

Yea also, because he transgresses by wine, he is a proud man, neither keeps at home, who enlarges his desire as sheol, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathers unto him all nations, and heaps unto him all people:

Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the people shall plunder you; because of bloodshed, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell in it. Woe to him that covets an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of ruin!

Woe to him that builds a town with blood, and establishes a city by iniquity!