2 Corinthians 6:14

2 Corinthians 6:14 in other versions

• King James Version (KJV)Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
• New International Version (NIV)Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
• English Standard Version (ESV)Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
• New King James Version (NKJV)Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

Context of 2 Corinthians 6:14

12We have done nothing to stop you from being our friends. But you have not really wanted to become our friends. 13I am speaking to you as I would speak to my own children. Be fair to us! Accept us as your friends, just as we have accepted you. Do not become united with people who do not believe in Christ. God has made you right with himself. Right and wrong cannot work together. Light and dark cannot join together. 15Christ will never agree with the Devil. People who believe in Christ are completely different from people who do not believe. 16Idols do not belong in God's house. Remember that we believers are the house of the God who lives for ever. This is what God has said: ‘I will make my home with them and I will live among them. I will be their God and they will be my people.’

2 Corinthians 6:14 word by word

Μὴ γίνεσθε ἑτεροζυγοῦντες ἀπίστοις· τίς γὰρ μετοχὴ δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ἀνομίᾳ; ἢ τίς κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος;Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• Be yeγίνομαιginomai · to beG1096
• notμήmē · notG3361
• unequally yoked togetherἑτεροζυγέωheterozugeō · to yoke a mismatchG2086
• with unbelieversἄπιστοςapistos · unbelievingG571
• forγάρgar · forG1063
• whatτίςtis · which?G5101
• fellowshipμετοχήmetochē · participationG3352
• hath righteousnessδικαιοσύνηdikaiosunē · righteousnessG1343
• withκαίkai · andG2532
• unrighteousnessἀνομίαanomia · lawlessnessG458
• andδέde · thenG1161
• communionκοινωνίαkoinōnia · participationG2842
• hath lightφῶςphōs · lightG5457
• withπρόςpros · to/withG4314
• darknessσκότοςskotos · darknessG4655

Cross-references for 2 Corinthians 6:14

• Exodus 34:16Perhaps you may choose some of their daughters for your sons to marry. Their daughters will continue to worship their gods. Then they will teach your sons to turn away from me and worship their gods.
• Leviticus 19:19The people must obey God's rules. They must not let two different kinds of animals have sex together. They must not put two different kinds of seeds in one field. They must not make clothes from two different materials.
• Deuteronomy 7:2The Lord your God will put those people under your power so that you win against them. When that happens, you must destroy them completely as a gift to God. Do not make any agreement with them to keep them safe. Do not be kind to them.
• Deuteronomy 22:9You must not plant any other crops between the vines in your vineyard. If you do that, none of the food or the grapes will belong to you.
• Ezra 9:1When we had done all these things, the Jewish leaders came to speak to me. They said, ‘Some of the Israelites have done disgusting things, like the people of other nations do. Some priests and Levites have done the same bad things. They live in the same way as the other people who live in this land, the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians and Amorites. They have not kept themselves separate.
• Ezra 10:19These men promised to send away their wives. Each of them gave a male sheep as a sacrifice because they were guilty.
• Nehemiah 13:1On that day, we read the book of Moses aloud to the people. One of the laws said that no descendant of Ammon or Moab should ever join with God's people when they met together.
• Psalms 106:35Instead, they mixed with those nations and they learned their way of life.
• Proverbs 22:242. Do not become a friend of angry people. Keep away from them.
• Malachi 2:11Judah's people have turned against God. As a result, people have done disgusting things in Jerusalem and in all Israel. You have spoiled the holy place, the temple that the Lord loves. You have turned away from the Lord and you worship foreign gods.
• 1 Corinthians 5:9I already wrote a letter to you. I told you that you must not be friends with people who have sex in wrong ways.
• 1 Corinthians 7:39If a woman has married, she may not leave her husband while he still lives. But if he dies, then she is free to marry again. She may marry any man that she wants to. But he must be someone who belongs to the Lord.
• 1 Corinthians 15:33Do not let anyone deceive you. Remember this: ‘If you become a friend of bad people, you also will live in a bad way.’
• James 4:4You are turning away from God, like a woman who is not faithful to her husband. You choose to be friends with people who are against God. So you yourselves become enemies of God. You should know that!
• 1 Samuel 5:2They carried it into the temple of Dagon, their god. They put the box next to the idol of Dagon.
• 1 Kings 18:21Elijah stood up in front of the people and he said, ‘You must now decide who to worship! If the Lord is the true God, worship him. But if Baal is God, worship him.’ But the people said nothing.

Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 6:14

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 14Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers - This is a military term: keep in your own ranks; do not leave the Christian community to join in that of the heathens. The verb ̔ signifies to leave one's own rank, place, or order, and go into another; and here it must signify not only that they should not associate with the Gentiles in their idolatrous feasts, but that they should not apostatize from Christianity; and the questions which follow show…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 14Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers - This is closely connected in sense with the previous verse. The apostle is there stating the nature of the remuneration or recompence which he asks for all the love which he had shown to them. He here says, that one mode of remuneration would be to yield obedience to his commands, and to separate themselves from all improper alliance with unbelievers. “Make me this return for my love. Love me as a…Read the comment
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 11-18Verses 11-18 It is wrong for believers to join with the wicked and profane. The word unbeliever applies to all destitute of true faith. True pastors will caution their beloved children in the gospel, not to be unequally yoked. The fatal effects of neglecting Scripture precepts as to marriages clearly appear. Instead of a help meet, the union brings a snare. Those whose cross it is to be unequally united, without their wilful fault, may expect consolation…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 14Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers: This advice refers to the Jewish rule against certain mixtures (Leviticus 19:19; Deuteronomy 22:10). Paul likely referred to the Corinthians' involvement in idol worship (see 1 Corinthians 8–10; compare 1 Corinthians 10:14–22).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1414. Be not--Greek, "Become not." unequally yoked--"yoked with one alien in spirit." The image is from the symbolical precept of the law (Le 19:19), "Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind"; or the precept (De 22:10), "Thou shalt not plough with an ox and an ass together." Compare De 7:3, forbidding marriages with the heathen; also 1Co 7:39. The believer and unbeliever are utterly heterogeneous. Too close intercourse with unbelievers in…Read the comment

Topics related to 2 Corinthians 6:14

• Church
• Communion
• Company
• Darkness
• Fellowship
• Holiness
• Marriage
• Unbelief

In the dictionaries

• Agreement
• Care
• Cause
• Communion
• Concord
• Corinthians, Second Epistle to the
• Unequally
• Unrighteousness
• Corinthians, First Epistle to the
• Corinthians, Second Epistle to the

Commentaries on 2 Corinthians 6

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Illustrated New Testament
• Burkitt’s Expository Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Family Bible Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• The People’s New Testament
• Robertson’s Word Pictures
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings