20 Bible Verses about Amusements

Even in laughter a heart may be sad,
and joy may end in grief.

His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them.

The one who loves pleasure will become a poor man;
whoever loves wine and oil will not get rich.

Early the next morning they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to play.

When they were drunk, they said, “Bring Samson here to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he entertained them. They had him stand between the pillars.

Then Abner said to Joab, “Let’s have the young men get up and compete in front of us.”

“Let them get up,” Joab replied.

They let their little ones run around like lambs;
their children skip about,
singing to the tambourine and lyre
and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.

I said to myself, “Go ahead, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy what is good.” But it turned out to be futile. I said about laughter, “It is madness,” and about pleasure, “What does this accomplish?”

At their feasts they have lyre, harp,
tambourine, flute, and wine.
They do not perceive the Lord’s actions,
and they do not see the work of His hands.

They improvise songs to the sound of the harp
and invent their own musical instruments like David.

The streets of the city will be filled with boys and girls playing in them.”

But Moses replied:

It’s not the sound of a victory cry
and not the sound of a cry of defeat;
I hear the sound of singing! As he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became enraged and threw the tablets out of his hands, smashing them at the base of the mountain.

Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them get out of control, resulting in weakness before their enemies.

As the troops were coming back, when David was returning from killing the Philistine, the women came out from all the cities of Israel to meet King Saul, singing and dancing with tambourines, with shouts of joy, and with three-stringed instruments. As they celebrated, the women sang:

Saul has killed his thousands,
but David his tens of thousands.

For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.

Now an opportune time came on his birthday, when Herod gave a banquet for his nobles, military commanders, and the leading men of Galilee.

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to each other:

We played the flute for you,
but you didn’t dance;
we sang a lament,
but you didn’t weep!

Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.