Enjoy Life with the One You Love

⁷ Go, ^(A)eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do.

¹² I perceived that there is ^(A)nothing better for them than to be joyful and to ^(B)do good as long as they live; ¹³ also ^(C)that everyone should eat and drink and take pleasure in all his toil—this is ^(D)God's gift to man.

⁷ And ^(A)there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and ^(B)you shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

¹⁵ And I commend joy, for man ^(A)has nothing better under the sun but to ^(B)eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun.

^24 (A)There is nothing better for a person than that he should ^(B)eat and drink and find enjoyment^[a] in his toil. This also, I saw, is ^(C)from the hand of God, ²⁵ for apart from him^[b] who can eat or who can have enjoyment? ²⁶ For to the one who pleases him ^(D)God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given ^(E)the business of gathering and collecting, ^(F)only to give to one who pleases God. ^(G)This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

¹⁸ Behold, what I have seen to be ^(A)good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment^[a] in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his ^(B)lot.

¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and ^(A)send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” ¹¹ So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” ¹² And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because ^(B)they had understood the words that were declared to them.

The Ark Placed in a Tent

16 And they brought in the ark of God and set it inside ^(A)the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before God. ² And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord ³ and distributed to all Israel, both men and women, to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat,^[a] and a cake of raisins.