Empty (literally or figuratively)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
Κενός means empty, empty-handed, without content, ineffective, or vain. Violent tenants send an owner's servant away with nothing, and Mary's song says God fills the hungry while sending the self-satisfied rich away empty.
Reader summary
Full entry for κενός (G2756) · Open the biblical lexicon
Κενός means empty, empty-handed, without content, ineffective, or vain. Violent tenants send an owner's servant away with nothing, and Mary's song says God fills the hungry while sending the self-satisfied rich away empty.
The BSB source-word alignment has 18 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include in vain (4), vain (4), empty-handed (3), empty (2), - (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Mark 12:3. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (4), Luke (3), 1 Thessalonians (2), Philippians (2).
Κενός means empty, empty-handed, without content, ineffective, or vain. Violent tenants send an owner's servant away with nothing, and Mary's song says God fills the hungry while sending the self-satisfied rich away empty. Acts calls the nations' opposition to God's Messiah a vain plot. Paul says grace toward him was not empty because it issued in labor empowered by grace, and he urges believers not to receive God's grace in vain.
Emptiness may describe a hand without fruit, an overturned status, a futile purpose, or a gift failing to reach its intended result. The adjective does not mean physical emptiness is always judgment or activity always proves fullness; the expected content and outcome matter.
Κενός describes absence or ineffectiveness. Empty-handed servants, reversed wealth, futile rebellion, and grace bearing or failing to bear fruit show several kinds of emptiness.
But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed.
The tenants beat the servant and send him away with no fruit, turning empty-handed return into evidence of their rebellion against the vineyard owner.
He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty.
Mary celebrates God filling the hungry and sending the rich away empty, a kingdom reversal aimed at proud self-sufficiency rather than a denial of mercy to every possessor.
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?
The gathered church reads political rage through Psalm 2: opposition plots in vain because God's anointed purpose advances through the rejected Jesus.
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.
Paul denies that grace toward him proved empty: his strenuous labor is real, yet he attributes its source and sustaining agency to God's grace.
As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
Receiving grace in vain warns against a response that leaves God's reconciling appeal without its intended obedient fruit in the community's life.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Empty of purpose or effect; faith, preaching, or labor lacking true content or result.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 18 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
empty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseempty, vain, hollow
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 10 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 4 selected witnesses from 18 lexical occurrence verses.
κενός is a primary word - no further derivation.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Emptiness reveals a failed expectation or overturned source of confidence. The vineyard servant returns without fruit because tenants violently refuse the owner's claim. Mary's song announces that God overturns self-satisfied wealth and fills the hungry according to covenant mercy. Psalm 2 names rebellion against the Messiah vain because no coalition can cancel God's purpose.
Paul uses the image pastorally: grace is not empty when it produces strenuous service, yet the labor remains grace-enabled rather than self-created. The warning against receiving grace in vain takes response seriously. Churches should seek fruit worthy of grace without pretending outcomes earn grace, and should expose proud abundance that leaves neighbors hungry while trusting that opposition to Christ cannot make God's mission empty.
Mark.12.3
Κενός is an adjective meaning empty or without effect and may modify persons, hands, words, labor, belief, or reception. The supplied or implied expectation defines the missing content.
God does not send His word back empty, exposes idols as futile, and reverses proud fullness. In the gospel, grace bears fruit through dependent servants.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain