he.vel describes what proves empty or without lasting gain, including life’s outcomes, futile efforts, and objects pursued instead of God.

The dominant use evaluates life, labor, pleasure, possessions, and human outcomes as empty or without advantage. Elsewhere the term marks objects and practices pursued in place of God, as well as futile help, speech, and effort.

1. Empty or profitless human experience · dominant

   In Ecclesiastes 2:11 the singular absolute form concludes an appraisal of completed work and toil, which the APB renders as having no profit under the sun. Ecclesiastes 2:21 applies it to labor left to someone who did not work for it, while Ecclesiastes 8:14 applies it to the unequal outcomes of righteous and wicked people.

   Ecclesiastes 2:11Ecclesiastes 2:21Ecclesiastes 3:19Ecclesiastes 6:2Ecclesiastes 8:14Ecclesiastes 11:8
2. Worthless objects or practices pursued · common

   Construct plural forms occur where Israel provokes the LORD through its sins and objects of devotion: 1 Kings 16:13 speaks of acts that provoke him, and Deuteronomy 32:21 contrasts them with what is no god. In Jeremiah 10:3 the singular form characterizes the customs of peoples in a clause about a tree worked by a craftsman.

   1 Kings 16:131 Kings 16:26Deuteronomy 32:21Jeremiah 2:5Jeremiah 10:3Jeremiah 14:22
3. Futile help, effort, or speech · occasional

   In Isaiah 30:7 the singular absolute form describes Egypt's help, which the APB renders as "vanity and empty." Job 21:34 and Job 35:16 place the same form with comfort or multiplied speech, and Lamentations 4:17 places it with watching for a nation that does not save.

   Isaiah 30:7Isaiah 49:4Job 21:34Job 35:16Job 9:29Lamentations 4:17
4. The transience or bleakness of life · occasional

   In Job 7:16 the singular absolute form qualifies the speaker's days after he says he will not live forever. Ecclesiastes 6:12 uses a construct form in the phrase about the few days of a person's life, spent like a shadow.

   Job 7:16Ecclesiastes 6:12Ecclesiastes 7:15Ecclesiastes 11:10

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB often presents the term with "vanity," especially in Ecclesiastes, and elsewhere uses expressions such as "worthless," "empty," or "in vain." Because the APB is a translation of whole verses, these renderings confirm the clauses' overall judgments without assigning every English expression directly to the term.