Ecclesiastes 2:2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”(A)
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Proverbs 14:13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
13 Even in laughter the heart is sad,
and the end of joy is grief.(A)
1 Peter 4:2-4
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 so as to live for the rest of your time in the flesh no longer by human desires but by the will of God.(A) 3 You have already spent enough time in doing what the gentiles like to do, living in debauchery, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.(B) 4 They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme.[a](C)
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- 4.4 Or they malign you
Ecclesiastes 7:2-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of everyone,
and the living will lay it to heart.(A)
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.(B)
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.(C)
6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of fools;
this also is vanity.
Amos 6:3-6
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 you who put far away the evil day
and bring near a reign of violence?(A)
4 Woe to those who lie on beds of ivory
and lounge on their couches
and eat lambs from the flock
and calves from the stall,(B)
5 who sing idle songs to the sound of the harp
and like David improvise on instruments of music,(C)
6 who drink wine from bowls
and anoint themselves with the finest oils
but are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph!(D)
Isaiah 22:12-13
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
12 On that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and putting on sackcloth,(A)
13 but instead there was joy and festivity,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating meat and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”(B)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.