20 Bible Verses about Amusements

Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief.

Now his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one in turn, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.

The one who loves pleasure will be a poor person; whoever loves wine and anointing oil will not be rich.

So they got up early on the next day and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.

When they really started celebrating, they said, "Call for Samson so he can entertain us!" So they summoned Samson from the prison and he entertained them. They made him stand between two pillars.

Abner said to Joab, "Let the soldiers get up and fight before us." Joab said, "So be it!"

They allow their children to run like a flock; their little ones dance about. They sing to the accompaniment of tambourine and harp, and make merry to the sound of the flute.

I thought to myself, "Come now, I will try self-indulgent pleasure to see if it is worthwhile." But I found that it also is futile. I said of partying, "It is folly," and of self-indulgent pleasure, "It accomplishes nothing!"

They have stringed instruments, tambourines, flutes, and wine at their parties. So they do not recognize what the Lord is doing, they do not perceive what he is bringing about.

They sing to the tune of stringed instruments; like David they invent musical instruments.

And the streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing.

Moses said, "It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, but the sound of singing I hear." When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.

Moses saw that the people were running wild, for Aaron had let them get completely out of control, causing derision from their enemies.

When the men arrived after David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women from all the cities of Israel came out singing and dancing to meet King Saul. They were happy as they played their tambourines and three-stringed instruments. The women who were playing the music sang, "Saul has struck down his thousands, but David his tens of thousands!"

For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries.

But a suitable day came, when Herod gave a banquet on his birthday for his court officials, military commanders, and leaders of Galilee.

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, 'We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.'

(All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there used to spend their time in nothing else than telling or listening to something new.)