Joy

⁷ Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works:

⁸ Let your garments always be white, and never spare the oil for your head.

⁹ Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun.

³ With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation,

⁴ and on that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name! Make His works known among the peoples; declare that His name is exalted.

So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

¹² They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD— the grain, new wine, and oil, and the young of the flocks and herds. Their life will be like a well-watered garden, and never again will they languish.

¹³ Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.

¹⁴ I will fill the souls of the priests abundantly, and will fill My people with My goodness,” declares the LORD.

⁹ Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law.

¹⁰ Then Nehemiah told them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

¹¹ And the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, since today is holy. Do not grieve.”

¹² Then all the people began to eat and drink, to send out portions, and to rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that had been made known to them.

On that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced, so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard from afar.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell securely.

¹⁰ For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

This is the day that the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.

Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and joy fill His dwelling.

And the people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given to the LORD freely and wholeheartedly. And King David also rejoiced greatly.

At that time Hannah prayed: “My heart rejoices in the LORD in whom my horn is exalted. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies, for I rejoice in Your salvation.

Rejoice at all times.

¹⁴ And David, wearing a linen ephod, danced with all his might before the LORD,

¹⁵ while he and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and the sounding of the ram’s horn.

So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

⁷ Light is sweet, and it pleases the eyes to see the sun.

⁸ So if a man lives many years, let him rejoice in them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is futile.

⁹ Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.

¹⁰ So banish sorrow from your heart, and cast off pain from your body, for youth and vigor are fleeting.

For seven days they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread with joy, because the LORD had made them joyful and turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to strengthen their hands in the work on the house of the God of Israel.

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,

¹⁸ yet I will exult in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!

¹⁸ But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight.

¹⁹ I will rejoice in Jerusalem and take delight in My people. The sounds of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her.

Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became my joy and my heart’s delight. For I bear Your name, O LORD God of Hosts.

Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

²⁷ However, when they relayed all that Joseph had told them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob was revived.

²⁸ “Enough!” declared Israel. “My son Joseph is still alive! I will go to see him before I die.”

²¹ The Israelites who were present in Jerusalem celebrated the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with great joy, and the Levites and priests praised the LORD day after day, accompanied by loud instruments of praise to the LORD.

²² And Hezekiah encouraged all the Levites who performed skillfully before the LORD. For seven days they ate their assigned portion, sacrificing fellowship offerings and giving thanks to the LORD, the God of their fathers.

²³ The whole assembly agreed to observe seven more days, so they observed seven days with joy.

²⁴ For Hezekiah king of Judah contributed a thousand bulls and seven thousand sheep for the assembly, and the officials contributed a thousand bulls and ten thousand sheep for the assembly, and a great number of priests consecrated themselves.

²⁵ Then the whole assembly of Judah rejoiced along with the priests and Levites and the whole assembly that had come from Israel, including the foreigners who had come from Israel and those who lived in Judah.

²⁶ So there was great rejoicing in Jerusalem, for nothing like this had happened there since the days of Solomon son of David king of Israel.

So there was great joy in that city.

Then he brought them into his home and set a meal before them. So he and all his household rejoiced that they had come to believe in God.

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

¹⁷ “Do not cling to Me,” Jesus said, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and tell My brothers, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’”

¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them what He had said to her.

¹⁹ It was the first day of the week, and that very evening, while the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. “Peace be with you!” He said to them.

²⁰ After He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

At that time Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.

²² But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.

²³ Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let us feast and celebrate.

²⁴ For this son of mine was dead and is alive again! He was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

But it was fitting to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

⁵² And they worshiped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

⁵³ praising God continually in the temple.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with great delight.

When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers.

Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.

⁸ So at that time Solomon and all Israel with him—a very great assembly of people from Lebo-hamath to the Brook of Egypt—kept the feast for seven days.

⁹ On the eighth day they held a solemn assembly, for the dedication of the altar had lasted seven days, and the feast seven days more.

¹⁰ On the twenty-third day of the seventh month, Solomon sent the people away to their homes, joyful and glad of heart for the good things that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel.

Then all the men of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat at their head, returned joyfully to Jerusalem, for the LORD had made them rejoice over their enemies.

¹⁴ And David, wearing a linen ephod, danced with all his might before the LORD,

¹⁵ while he and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and the sounding of the ram’s horn.

He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God.

When the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.

And Jethro rejoiced over all the good things the LORD had done for Israel, whom He had rescued from the hand of the Egyptians.

⁷ She added, “Who would have told Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

⁸ So the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham held a great feast on the day Isaac was weaned.