45 Bible Verses about Leisure, And Pastimes

It is vain for you to rise up early, to take rest late, to eat the bread of toil, [for] so he gives sleep to his beloved.

In peace I will both lay down and sleep, for thou, LORD, alone make me dwell in safety.

And he himself was in the stern sleeping on the cushion. And they awake him, and say to him, Teacher, does it not concern thee that we perish?

And when Herod was about to bring him forth, that night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound by two chains. And guards in front of the door guarded the prison.

And they ate and drank, he and the men who were with him, and tarried all night. And they rose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away to my master.

and said, My lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let now a little water be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and strengthen ye your heart. After that ye shall pass on, inasmuch as ye came to your servant. And they said, Do so as thou have said.

stranger-loving toward each other without complaints.

And Solomon awoke, and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of LORD, and offered up burnt-offerings, and offered peace-offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

Then he said to them, Go your way, eat fat things, and drink sweet things, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared. For this day is holy to our LORD; neither be ye grieved, for the joy of LORD is your strength.

And his sons went and held a feast in the house of each one upon his day, and they sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

And it came to pass, when the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took the harp, and played with his hand. So Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

Let our lord now command thy servants, who are before thee, to seek out a man who is a skilful player on the harp. And it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou sh And Saul said to his servants, Provide for me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me. Then one of the young men answered, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite who is skilful in playing, and a mighty man of valor, and a man of war, and prudent in speech, and a comely man, and LORD is with him

And Elisha said, As LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely, were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would not look toward thee, nor see thee. But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of LORD came upon him.

And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances.

And Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. And she was his only child. Besides her he had neither son nor daughter.

And it came to pass as they came, when David returned from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet king Saul, with timbrels, with joy, and with instruments

They send forth their little ones like a flock, and their children dance.

Again I will build thee, and thou shall be built, O virgin of Israel. Again thou shall be adorned with thy tambourine, and shall go forth in the dances of those who make merry.

And they said, Behold, there is a feast of LORD from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah. And they commanded the sons of Benjamin, saying, Go and lay in wait in the vineyards, and watch. And, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch for you every man his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

and the daughter of her (of Herodias) having come in and danced, and having pleased Herod and those who sat with the king, he said to the maiden, Ask of me whatever thou may want, and I will give to thee.

And David danced before LORD with all his might. And David was girded with a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet. And it was so, as the ark of LORD came into the city of David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looked out at the window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before LORD, and she despised him in her heart.

Let them praise his name in the dance. Let them sing praises to him with timbrel and harp.

Praise him with timbrel and dance. Praise him with stringed instruments and pipe.

For bodily exercise is profitable for a little, but piety is profitable for all things, having promise of the present life, and of that which is coming.

Know ye not that those who run in an arena, indeed all run, but one receives the prize? So run that ye may seize it. And every man who strives for mastery exercises self-control in all things. Indeed therefore those men do it so that they might obtain a perishable crown, but we an imperishable. I therefore run this way, not as aimlessly. I fight this way, not as flaying air.read more.
But I give my body a black eye and subdue it, lest somehow having preached to others, I myself might become disqualified.

And also if any man competes, he is not crowned unless he competes lawfully.

And LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou have ordained,

He sends forth springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains. They give drink to every beast of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. By them the birds of the heavens have their habitation. They sing among the branches.read more.
He waters the mountains from his chambers. The earth is filled with the fruit of thy works. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and herbage for the service of man, that he may bring forth food out of the earth,

And as he went forth out of the temple, one of his disciples says to him, Teacher, see what kind of stones and what kind of buildings.

But while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was aroused within him, seeing the city being completely idolatrous.

And he spoke three thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five. And he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even to the hyssop that springs out of the wall. He spoke also of beasts, and of birds, and of creeping things, and of fishes. And there came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth who had heard of his wisdom.

that the wise man may hear, and increase in learning, and that the man of understanding may attain to sound counsels,

Now all the Athenians, and the foreigners who dwell alien there, were at leisure in nothing else, than to tell or to hear something new.

Bring the cloak that I left behind at Troas with Carpus when thou come, and the books, especially the parchments.

And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets of it.

But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, calling to their companions, and saying, We piped to you, and ye did not dance, we mourned to you, and ye did not beat the breast.

They are like children sitting in the marketplace, and calling to each other, and saying, We piped to you, and ye did not dance. We mourned to you, and ye did not weep.

For enough time of life has past for you to accomplish the will of the Gentiles, having gone in debaucheries, lusts, excesses of wine, revelings, drinking parties, and lawless idolatries.

And Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard. And he drank of the wine, and was drunken. And he was uncovered within his tent.

And it came to pass, as soon as he came near to the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing. And Moses' anger grew hot, and he cast the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mount.

Let us walk decently as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in beddings and wantonness, not in strife and envy.

also indecency, and foolish talking or jesting, things not befitting, but thankfulness instead.

And it came to pass, when their hearts were merry, that they said, Call for Samson, that he may make sport to us. And they called for Samson out of the prison-house, and he made sport before them. And they set him between the pilla

And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men, I pray thee, arise and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.