“It did no good for me to punish your people. They did not respond to such correction. You slaughtered your prophets like a voracious lion.” ¹ 

The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely. But there is too much dross to be removed. ¹  The process of refining them has proved useless. ²  The wicked have not been purged.

Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, ¹  you dear poor people of Egypt. ²  But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; ³  there will be no healing for you.

and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.

But I thought, ¹  “I have worked in vain; I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.” ²  But the Lord will vindicate me; my God will reward me. ³ 

You must not make use of the name of the Lord your God for worthless purposes, ¹  for the Lord will not exonerate anyone who abuses his name that way. ² 

They will not work in vain, or give birth to children that will experience disaster. ¹  For the Lord will bless their children and their descendants. ² 

Your strength will be used up in vain, your land will not give its yield, and the trees of the land ¹  will not produce their fruit.

who said by the Holy Spirit through ¹  your servant David our forefather, ²  ‘Why do the nations ³  rage, ⁴  and the peoples plot foolish ⁵  things?

It is vain for you to rise early, come home late, and work so hard for your food. ¹  Yes, ²  he can provide for those whom he loves even when they sleep. ³ 

A horse disappoints those who trust in it for victory; ¹  despite its great strength, it cannot deliver.

You despise ¹  all who stray from your statutes, for they are deceptive and unreliable. ² 

So Job opens his mouth to no purpose; ¹  without knowledge he multiplies words.”

Those who worship ¹  worthless idols ²  forfeit the mercy that could be theirs. ³ 

Some have strayed from these and turned away to empty discussion.

Surely people go through life as mere ghosts. ¹  Surely they accumulate worthless wealth without knowing who will eventually haul it away.” ² 

Charm is deceitful ¹  and beauty is fleeting, ²  but a woman who fears the Lord ³  will be praised.

Now David had been thinking, ¹  “In vain I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the desert. I didn’t take anything from him. But he has repaid my good with evil.

So then, dear brothers and sisters, ¹  be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

For the household gods ¹  have spoken wickedness, the soothsayers have seen a lie, and as for the dreamers, they have disclosed emptiness and give comfort in vain. Therefore the people set out like sheep and become scattered because they have no shepherd. ²