Vanity
הֶ֫בֶלStrong’s H1892hevel (he-vel)
Appears in 64 verses of the Old Testament
In short
Hevel is the Hebrew word usually translated “futility”, “vanity” and “breath”. It appears in 64 verses of the Old Testament.
“For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd.”
Meaning
- Vapour, breathbreath, vapour · vanity (fig.)
- Vainly
How it's translated
- futility 33
- vanity 9
- a breath 5
- futilities 4
- futility of 3
- with vanities their 2
- vanities of 2
- in futility 2
Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.
Where it's used most
- Ecclesiastes 30
- Psalms 8
- Jeremiah 8
- Job 5
- Proverbs 3
- Isaiah 3
12 books in all.
Related words
Explore in Scripture
- Deuteronomy 32:21They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
- 1 Kings 16:13For all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, by which they sinned, and by which they made Israel to sin, in provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
- 1 Kings 16:26For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger with their vanities.
- 2 Kings 17:15And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.
- Job 7:16I loathe it; I would not live alway: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
- Job 9:29If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
All 64 verses, by book
Hebrew dictionary
הֶ֫בֶל hevel · vanity
1) vapour, breath 1a) breath, vapour 1b) vanity (fig.) adv 2) vainly
From STEPBible’s Hebrew lexicon (based on Brown-Driver-Briggs).
Webster's 1828 Dictionary
How the English word “vanity” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.
VAN'ITY, noun
[Latin vanitas, from vanus, vain.]
- Emptiness; want of substance to satisfy desire; uncertainty; inanity.“Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; all is vanity” Ecclesiastes 1:2
- Fruitless desire or endeavor.
- Trifling labor that produces no good.
- Emptiness; untruth
All definitions
- Empty pleasure; vain pursuit; idle show; unsubstantial enjoyment.
- Ostentation; arrogance.
- Inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride, inspired by an overweening conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations.
Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.
Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Hebrew, not from any one translation.