“Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,

Then her husband set out after her, to speak tenderly to her and bring her back. He had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys. When he reached her father’s house, the young woman’s father saw him and came with joy to meet him.

As they were coming home, when David returned from killing the Philistine, the women came out of all the towns of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments.

And all the people went up following him, playing on pipes and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth quaked at their noise.

On the eighth day he sent the people away, and they blessed the king and went to their tents joyful and in good spirits because of all the goodness that the Lord had shown to his servant David and to his people Israel.

And also their neighbors from as far away as Issachar and Zebulun and Naphtali came bringing food on donkeys, camels, mules, and oxen—abundant provisions of meal, cakes of figs, clusters of raisins, wine, oil, oxen, and sheep, for there was joy in Israel.

David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their kindred as singers to raise loud sounds of joy on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals.

Honor and majesty are before him; strength and joy are in his place.

Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth.

I know, my God, that you search the heart and take pleasure in uprightness; in the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things, and now I have seen your people who are present here offering freely and joyously to you.

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.

On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their homes, joyful and in good spirits because of the goodness that the Lord had shown to David and to Solomon and to his people Israel.

Then all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat at their head, returned to Jerusalem with joy, for the Lord had enabled them to rejoice over their enemies.

There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon son of King David of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.

But many of the priests and Levites and heads of families, old people who had seen the first house on its foundations, wept with a loud voice when they saw this house, though many shouted aloud for joy,

so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted so loudly that the sound was heard far away.

The people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy.

With joy they celebrated the Festival of Unleavened Bread seven days, for the Lord had made them joyful and had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, so that he aided them in the work on the house of God, the God of Israel.

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.”

They offered great sacrifices that day and rejoiced, for God had made them rejoice with great joy; the women and children also rejoiced. The joy of Jerusalem was heard far away.

For the Jews there was light and gladness, joy and honor.

In every province and in every city, wherever the king’s command and his edict came, there was gladness and joy among the Jews, a festival and a holiday. Furthermore, many of the peoples of the country professed to be Jews because the fear of the Jews had fallen upon them.

Yes, let that night be barren; let no joyful cry be heard in it.

He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.

that the exulting of the wicked is short and the joy of the godless is but for a moment?