Word study

Vain

4 Hebrew and 3 Greek words behind this English word

The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “vain”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.

At a glance

How often each original word is translated “vain” or one of its forms.

Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side

Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)

  • שָׁוְא shâveemptiness, vanitytranslated this way 13 times of its 52 uses · Strong’s H7723Noun  ·  Translated: vain 12, false 8, falsehood 4, worthless 4

    Exodus 20:7 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.

    Deuteronomy 5:11 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.

    Full study and all 47 verses →
  • רִיק rîqemptiness, vanitytranslated this way 8 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H7385Noun  ·  Translated: vain 8, vanity 1, empty 1, like an empty 1

    Leviticus 26:16 then this is what I will do to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting disease, and fever that will destroy your sight and drain your life. You will sow your seed in vain, because your enemies will eat it.

    Job 39:16 She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.

    Full study and all 12 verses →
  • הֶבֶל hebelvapour, breathtranslated this way 4 times of its 73 uses · Strong’s H1892Noun  ·  Translated: futile 25, worthless idols 9, futility 8, fleeting 5

    Job 9:29 Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?

    Psalm 39:6 Surely every man goes about like a phantom; surely he bustles in vain; he heaps up riches not knowing who will haul them away.

    Full study and all 64 verses →
  • שֶׁקֶר sheqerdeception, disappointment, falsehoodtranslated this way 3 times of its 104 uses · Strong’s H8267Noun  ·  Translated: lies 18, lying 16, false 12, falsely 10

    1 Samuel 25:21 Now David had just said, “In vain I have protected all that belonged to this man in the wilderness. Nothing that belongs to him has gone missing, yet he has paid me back evil for good.

    Psalm 33:17 A horse is a vain hope for salvation; even its great strength cannot save.

    Full study and all 100 verses →

Greek words (New Testament)

  • κενός kenósempty, vain, hollowtranslated this way 8 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s G2756Adjective  ·  Translated: vain 8, empty-handed 3, empty 3, worthless 1

    Acts 4:25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of Your servant, our father David: ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

    1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

    Full study and all 16 verses →
  • εἰκῆ eikēwithout purpose, in vaintranslated this way 3 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s G1500Adverb  ·  Translated: vain 3, nothing 2, without basis 1

    Romans 13:4 For he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not carry the sword in vain. He is God’s servant, an agent of retribution to the wrongdoer.

    1 Corinthians 15:2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

    Full study and all 5 verses →
  • μάτην mátēnin vaintranslated this way 2 times of its 2 uses · Strong’s G3155Adverb  ·  Translated: vain 2

    Matthew 15:9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

    Mark 7:7 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’

    Full study and all 2 verses →
How to study a word well
  1. Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
  2. Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
  3. Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
  4. Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
  5. See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
  6. Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
  7. Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.

Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.