Complete this week of wedding celebration, and we will also give you this younger one in return for working yet another seven years for me.”

And Jacob did just that. He finished the week of celebration, and Laban gave him his daughter Rachel as his wife.

“This day is to be a memorial for you, and you must celebrate it as a festival to the Lord. You are to celebrate it throughout your generations as a permanent statute.

The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.

If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord’s Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.

“Celebrate a festival in My honor three times a year.

The Israelites must observe the Sabbath, celebrating it throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant.

“You are to celebrate the Lord’s festival on the fifteenth day of the seventh month for seven days after you have gathered the produce of the land. There will be complete rest on the first day and complete rest on the eighth day.

You are to celebrate it as a festival to the Lord seven days each year. This is a permanent statute for you throughout your generations; you must celebrate it in the seventh month.

Offerings for the Festival of Booths

“You are to hold a sacred assembly on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; you must not do any daily work. You are to celebrate a seven-day festival for the Lord.

The Festival of Passover

“Observe the month of Abib and celebrate the Passover to the Lord your God, because the Lord your God brought you out of Egypt by night in the month of Abib.

You are to celebrate the Festival of Weeks to the Lord your God with a freewill offering that you give in proportion to how the Lord your God has blessed you.

The Festival of Booths

“You are to celebrate the Festival of Booths for seven days when you have gathered in everything from your threshing floor and winepress.

So they went out to the countryside and harvested grapes from their vineyards. They trampled the grapes and held a celebration. Then they went to the house of their god, and as they ate and drank, they cursed Abimelech.

As they celebrated, the women sang: Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.

So he led him, and there were the Amalekites, spread out over the entire area, eating, drinking, and celebrating because of the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah.

David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with all kinds of fir wood instruments, lyres, harps, tambourines, sistrums, and cymbals.

David replied to Michal, “I was dancing before the Lord who chose me over your father and his whole family to appoint me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel. I will celebrate before the Lord,

David and all Israel were celebrating with all their might before God with songs and with lyres, harps, tambourines, cymbals, and trumpets.

As the ark of the covenant of the Lord was entering the city of David, Saul’s daughter Michal looked down from the window and saw King David dancing and celebrating, and she despised him in her heart.

David appointed some of the Levites to be ministers before the ark of the Lord, to celebrate the Lord God of Israel, and to give thanks and praise to Him.

Celebration of the Passover

Then Hezekiah sent word throughout all Israel and Judah, and he also wrote letters to Ephraim and Manasseh to come to the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem to observe the Passover of Yahweh, the God of Israel.

They celebrated the Festival of Booths as prescribed, and offered burnt offerings each day, based on the number specified by ordinance for each festival day.

Temple Dedication and the Passover

Then the Israelites, including the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles, celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy.

Then all the people began to eat and drink, send portions, and have a great celebration, because they had understood the words that were explained to them.

The whole community that had returned from exile made booths and lived in them. They had not celebrated like this from the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day. And there was tremendous joy.

Ezra read out of the book of the law of God every day, from the first day to the last. The Israelites celebrated the festival for seven days, and on the eighth day there was an assembly, according to the ordinance.

Dedication of the Wall

At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, they sent for the Levites wherever they lived and brought them to Jerusalem to celebrate the joyous dedication with thanksgiving and singing accompanied by cymbals, harps, and lyres.

On that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced because God had given them great joy. The women and children also celebrated, and Jerusalem’s rejoicing was heard far away.

and the Jews celebrated with gladness, joy, and honor.

In every province and every city, wherever the king’s command and his law reached, joy and rejoicing took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday. And many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews had overcome them.

He ordered them to celebrate the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month Adar every year

the Jews bound themselves, their descendants, and all who joined with them to a commitment that they would not fail to celebrate these two days each and every year according to the written instructions and according to the time appointed.

These days are remembered and celebrated by every generation, family, province, and city, so that these days of Purim will not lose their significance in Jewish life and their memory will not fade from their descendants.

Psalm 9

Celebration of God’s Justice

For the choir director: according to Muth-labben. A Davidic psalm.

I will thank Yahweh with all my heart; I will declare all Your wonderful works.

But the righteous are glad; they rejoice before God and celebrate with joy.

Let Israel celebrate its Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.

Let the godly celebrate in triumphal glory; let them shout for joy on their beds.

from those who enjoy doing evil and celebrate perversion,

and on that day you will say: “Give thanks to Yahweh; proclaim His name! Celebrate His works among the peoples. Declare that His name is exalted.

I never sat with the band of revelers, and I did not celebrate with them. Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone, for You filled me with indignation.

Thanksgiving will come out of them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not decrease; I will honor them, and they will not be insignificant.

Joy and celebration are taken from the fertile field and from the land of Moab. I have stopped the flow of wine from the winepresses; no one will tread with shouts of joy. The shouting is not a shout of joy.

Doom has come on you, inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near. There will be panic on the mountains and not celebration.

“In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you are to celebrate the Passover, a festival of seven days during which unleavened bread will be eaten.

I will put an end to all her celebrations: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her festivals.

Look to the mountains— the feet of one bringing good news and proclaiming peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked one will never again march through you; he will be entirely wiped out.

Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter, then rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague the Lord inflicts on the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

This will be the punishment of Egypt and all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Festival of Booths.

But when Herod’s birthday celebration came, Herodias’s daughter danced before them and pleased Herod.

“Go into the city to a certain man,” He said, “and tell him, ‘The Teacher says: My time is near; I am celebrating the Passover at your place with My disciples.’”

Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast,

because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate.

But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.

David Celebrating the Same Truth

Likewise, David also speaks of the blessing of the man God credits righteousness to apart from works:

Those who live on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send gifts to one another because these two prophets brought judgment to those who live on the earth.

Celebration in Heaven

After this I heard something like the loud voice of a vast multitude in heaven, saying: Hallelujah! Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God,