20 Bible Verses about Amusements

Even in laughter, a heart may be sad, and the end of joy [may be] grief.

And his sons used to go and hold a feast {at each other's house} on his day, and they would send, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

A man of want [is] he who loves pleasure; he who loves wine and oil will not become rich.

And they started early the next day, and they offered burnt offerings, and they presented fellowship offerings, and the people sat to eat and drink, and they rose up to revel.

After awhile, when their hearts were merry, they said, "Call Samson and let him entertain us." And they called Samson {from the prison}, and {he entertained them}. And they made him stand between the pillars.

Abner said to Joab, "Let the young men come up and fight in our presence." And Joab said, "Let them come up."

They send out their little ones like the flock, and their children dance around. They {sing} to [the] tambourine and lyre, and they rejoice to [the] sound of [the] long flute.

I said {to myself}, "Come! I will test pleasure {to see whether it is worthwhile}." But look, "This also [is] vanity!" I said of laughter, "[It is] folly!" and of pleasure, "{What does it accomplish?}"

And [there] will be lyre and harp, tambourine and flute, and wine [at] their feasts, but they do not look at the deeds of Yahweh, and they do not see the work of his hands.

[Alas for those] who sing to the tune of the harp; like David they improvise on instruments of music.

And the public squares of the city will be filled [with] boys and girls playing in its public squares.'

But he said, "There is not a sound of shouting of victory, and there is not a sound of shouting of defeat. I hear a sound of singing." {And} as he came near to the camp, he saw the bull calf and dancing, and {Moses became angry}, and he threw the tablets from his hand, and he broke them under the mountain.

And Moses saw the people, that they [were] running wild because Aaron had allowed them to run wild, for a laughingstock among {their enemies}.

{When they were coming back} after David had returned from striking down the Philistine, the women went out from all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with three-stringed instruments. And the women sang as they danced, and they said, "Saul has struck down his thousands, but David his ten thousands!"

For the time that has passed [was] sufficient {to do what the Gentiles desire to do}, having lived in licentiousness, [evil] desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries,

And a suitable day came when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers and military tribunes and the most prominent [men] of Galilee.

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, who say, 'We played the flute for you and you did not dance; we sang a lament and you did not weep.'

(Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who stayed there used to spend [their] time in nothing else than telling something or listening to something new.)