Reference: Entertain
Easton
Entertainments, "feasts," were sometimes connected with a public festival (De 16:11,14), and accompanied by offerings (1Sa 9:13), in token of alliances (Ge 26:30); sometimes in connection with domestic or social events, as at the weaning of children (Ge 21:8), at weddings (Ge 29:22; Joh 2:1), on birth-days (Mt 14:6), at the time of sheep-shearing (2Sa 13:23), and of vintage (Jg 9:27), and at funerals (2Sa 3:35; Jer 16:7).
The guests were invited by servants (Pr 9:3; Mt 22:3), who assigned them their respective places (1Sa 9:22; Lu 14:8; Mr 12:39). Like portions were sent by the master to each guest (1Sa 1:4; 2Sa 6:19), except when special honour was intended, when the portion was increased (Ge 43:34).
The Israelites were forbidden to attend heathenish sacrificial entertainments (Ex 34:15), because these were in honour of false gods, and because at such feast they would be liable to partake of unclean flesh (1Co 10:28).
In the entertainments common in apostolic times among the Gentiles were frequent "revellings," against which Christians were warned (Ro 13:13; Ga 5:21; 1Pe 4:3). (See Banquet.)
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned.
And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink.
And Laban gathered together all the men of the place, and made a feast.
And he took and sent messes unto them from before him: but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank, and were merry with him.
Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice;
And thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there.
And thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within thy gates.
And they went out into the fields, and gathered their vineyards, and trode the grapes, and made merry, and went into the house of their god, and did eat and drink, and cursed Abimelech.
And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:
As soon as ye be come into the city, ye shall straightway find him, before he go up to the high place to eat: for the people will not eat until he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice; and afterwards they eat that be bidden. Now therefore get you up; for about this time ye shall find him.
And Samuel took Saul and his servant, and brought them into the parlour, and made them sit in the chiefest place among them that were bidden, which were about thirty persons.
And when all the people came to cause David to eat meat while it was yet day, David sware, saying, So do God to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or ought else, till the sun be down.
And it came to pass after two full years, that Absalom had sheepshearers in Baalhazor, which is beside Ephraim: and Absalom invited all the king's sons.
Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.
And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
But if any man say unto you, This is offered in sacrifice unto idols, eat not for his sake that shewed it, and for conscience sake: for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof:
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.