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

¹² I know that there is nothing better for them than to be happy and enjoy themselves as long as they live; ¹³ moreover, it is God’s gift that all should eat and drink and take pleasure in all their toil.

¹⁵ So I commend enjoyment, for there is nothing better for people under the sun than to eat and drink and enjoy themselves, for this will go with them in their toil through the days of life that God gives them under the sun.^(A)

²⁴ There is nothing better for mortals than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in their toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God,^{(A) 25} for apart from him^[a] who can eat or who can have enjoyment? ²⁶ For to the one who pleases him God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he gives the work of gathering and heaping, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.^(B)

⁷ And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.^(A)

¹⁸ This is what I have seen to be good: it is fitting to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of the life God gives us, for this is our lot.^(A)

The Ark Placed in the Tent

16 They brought in the ark of God and set it inside the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before God.^{(A) 2} When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord, ³ and he distributed to every person in Israel—man and woman alike—to each a loaf of bread, a portion of meat,^[a] and a cake of raisins.

¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord, and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”^{(A) 11} So the Levites stilled 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 they had understood the words that were declared to them.^(B)

²¹ On the next day they offered sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord, a thousand bulls, a thousand rams, and a thousand lambs, with their libations, and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel,^{(A) 22} and they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great joy.

Solomon Anointed King

They made David’s son Solomon king a second time; they anointed him as the Lord’s prince and Zadok as priest.^{(B) 23} Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord, succeeding his father David as king; he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him.