2 Corinthians 6:14

Linguistic Bible Translation from Source Texts

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Μὴ γίνεσθε ἑτεροζυγοῦντες ἀπίστοις: τίς γὰρ μετοχὴ δικαιοσύνῃ καὶ ἀνομίᾳ; τίς δὲ κοινωνία φωτὶ πρὸς σκότος;

Transliteration

Not ginesthe heterozygountes with apistois: what for metochē for dikaiosynē and anomia? what de koinōnia for phōti pros skotos?

Grammar Details

• *ginesthe*: present imperative, middle, 2nd person plural - become/be
• *heterozygountes*: present participle, active, nominative, masculine, plural - unequally yoked/mismatched
• *apistois*: dative, masculine, plural - unbelievers/unfaithful ones
• *metochē*: nominative, feminine, singular - partnership/participation/sharing
• *dikaiosynē*: dative, feminine, singular - righteousness/justice
• *anomia*: dative, feminine, singular - lawlessness/iniquity
• *de*: postpositive conjunction - but/and/now
• *koinōnia*: nominative, feminine, singular - fellowship/communion/association
• *phōti*: dative, neuter, singular - light
• *pros*: preposition + accusative - with/toward
• *skotos*: accusative, neuter, singular - darkness

Word Meanings

• *ginesthe*: become/be/happen to be
• *heterozygountes*: unequally yoked/mismatched/paired with something different
• *apistois*: unbelievers/unfaithful ones/non-Christians
• *metochē*: partnership/participation/sharing/association
• *dikaiosynē*: righteousness/justice/rightness
• *anomia*: lawlessness/iniquity/wickedness
• *koinōnia*: fellowship/communion/association/partnership
• *phōti*: light/illumination/brightness
• *skotos*: darkness/obscurity/ignorance

Other Translations

• King James Version 1769 (Standard Version)

  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

• KJV1611 – Modern English

  Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

• King James Version 1611 (Original)

  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

• American Standard Version with Strong's Numbers

  Be{G1096} not{G3361} unequally yoked{G2086} with unbelievers:{G571} for{G1063} what{G5101} fellowship{G3352} have righteousness{G1343} and{G1161} iniquity?{G458} or{G1161} what{G5101} communion{G2842} hath light{G5457} with{G2532} darkness?{G4655}

• King James Version with Strong's Numbers

  Be ye{G1096}{(G5737)} not{G3361} unequally yoked together{G2086}{(G5723)} with unbelievers{G571}: for{G1063} what{G5101} fellowship{G3352} hath righteousness{G1343} with{G2532} unrighteousness{G458}? and{G1161} what{G5101} communion{G2842} hath light{G5457} with{G4314} darkness{G4655}?

• Tyndale Bible (1526/1534)

  Set youreselues therfore at large and beare not a straugers yoke wyth the vnbelevers. For what fellishippe hath rightewesnes with vnrightewesnes? What company hath light wt darcknes?

• Coverdale Bible (1535)

  Set youre selues therfore at large.Beare not a straunge yock with the vnbeleuers. For what fellishippe hath righteousnes with vnrighteousnes? What company hath lighte wt darknesse?

• Geneva Bible (1560)

  Be not vnequally yoked with the infidels: for what felowship hath righteousnesse with vnrighteousnesse? and what communion hath light with darkenesse?

• Bishops' Bible (1568)

  And beare not ye a straunge yoke with the vnbeleuers. For what felowship hath righteousnesse with vnrighteousnesse? Or what communion hath lyght with darkenesse?

• Authorized King James Version (1611)

  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

• Webster's Bible (1833)

  Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what communion has light with darkness?

• Young's Literal Translation (1862/1898)

  Become not yoked with others -- unbelievers, for what partaking `is there' to righteousness and lawlessness?

• American Standard Version (1901)

  Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?

• American Standard Version (1901)

  Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?

• Bible in Basic English (1941)

  Do not keep company with those who have not faith: for what is there in common between righteousness and evil, or between light and dark?

• World English Bible (2000)

  Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

• NET Bible® (New English Translation)

  Unequal Partners Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

Referenced Verses

• 1 Cor 15:33 : 33 Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.'
• Eph 5:6-9 : 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore, do not be partners with them. 8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. 9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.) 10 Prove what is well-pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 For it is shameful even to speak of what they do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is made visible is light. 14 Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
• 1 Cor 10:21 : 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons.
• Deut 22:9-9 : 9 Do not plant two kinds of seeds in your vineyard, or the entire harvest, both the crop you plant and the fruit of the vineyard, will be forfeited. 10 Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together. 11 Do not wear clothing woven from wool and linen together.
• Jas 4:4 : 4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
• 1 Pet 2:9-9 : 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 10 Once, you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
• Ps 139:21-22 : 21 Do I not hate those who hate You, LORD, and detest those who rise up against You? 22 I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them as my enemies.
• 1 Thess 5:4-8 : 4 But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6 So then, let us not sleep like the rest, but let us be alert and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.
• 1 Kgs 18:21 : 21 Elijah approached all the people and said, "How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal is God, follow him." But the people said nothing.
• Ezra 9:11-12 : 11 'that you commanded through your servants the prophets, saying: "The land you are entering to possess is a land defiled by the practices of its peoples and their detestable acts that have filled it with impurity from one end to the other."' 12 So now, do not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons. Do not seek their peace or prosperity forever, so that you may be strong, eat the good things of the land, and leave it to your children as an inheritance forever.
• Ps 26:4-5 : 4 I do not sit with deceitful people, nor do I associate with hypocrites. 5 I hate the assembly of evildoers, and I will not sit with the wicked.
• Eph 4:17-20 : 17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ,
• Mal 2:11 : 11 Judah has been unfaithful, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. Judah has profaned the sanctuary of the Lord, which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god.
• 1 Pet 4:2-4 : 2 As a result, you should no longer live the rest of your earthly life for human desires but instead for the will of God. 3 For you have already spent enough time in the past doing what the Gentiles choose to do, living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. 4 They are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and they heap abuse on you.
• Mal 2:15 : 15 Did not God make them one, with a portion of His spirit in their union? And what was the one seeking? Godly offspring. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.
• John 7:7 : 7 'The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify about it that its works are evil.'
• John 15:18-19 : 18 If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. But you do not belong to the world, for I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.
• Acts 4:23 : 23 After they were released, they returned to their own people and reported everything the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
• Rom 13:12-14 : 12 The night is far gone, and the day is near. So let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us walk properly, as in the daytime, not in revelries and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. 14 But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the desires of the flesh.
• 1 Cor 5:9 : 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
• 1 Cor 7:39 : 39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry anyone she wishes, only in the Lord.
• Ps 119:63 : 63 I am a companion to all who fear You, to those who keep Your precepts.
• Prov 29:27 : 27 The righteous detest the unjust, and the wicked detest the upright.
• Phil 2:15 : 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and perverted generation. Among them, you shine as lights in the world,
• Ps 26:9-9 : 9 Do not sweep away my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty people, 10 whose hands are full of wicked schemes, and whose right hand is filled with bribes.
• Ps 44:20-21 : 20 You have crushed us in the place of jackals and covered us with deep darkness. 21 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
• Neh 13:23-26 : 23 Additionally, in those days I saw Jews who had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 Half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod or the language of other peoples, but they could not speak the language of Judah. 25 So I confronted them, cursed them, struck some of them, pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God: 'You must not give your daughters in marriage to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or yourselves.' 26 Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin because of such things? Among the many nations, there was no king like him; he was loved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet, even he was led into sin by foreign women.
• Ps 16:3 : 3 As for the holy ones who are in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.
• Ezra 10:19 : 19 They gave their hands in pledge to put away their wives, and for their guilt they offered a ram from the flock as a guilt offering.
• 1 Sam 5:2-3 : 2 The Philistines took the Ark of God and carried it into the temple of Dagon, placing it beside Dagon. 3 When the people of Ashdod woke early the next morning, they found Dagon fallen face down on the ground before the Ark of the LORD. They picked up Dagon and returned it to its place.
• Exod 34:16 : 16 And when you take some of their daughters as wives for your sons, their daughters will lead your sons to prostitute themselves to their gods.
• Lev 19:19 : 19 Keep my decrees. Do not mate different kinds of animals. Do not plant your field with different kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven from two kinds of material.
• Deut 7:2-3 : 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you and you defeat them, you must devote them to complete destruction. Do not make a covenant with them or show them any mercy. 3 Do not intermarry with them: do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
• Neh 13:1-3 : 1 On that day, the Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people, and it was found written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God. 2 This was because they had not met the Israelites with bread and water but had hired Balaam to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 When they heard the Law, they separated all those of foreign descent from Israel.
• 2 Chr 19:2 : 2 Jehu, the son of Hanani the seer, went out to meet King Jehoshaphat and said to him, 'Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Because of this, the LORD’s wrath is upon you.'
• Ezra 9:1-2 : 1 When these things were completed, the officials approached me and said, 'The people of Israel, including the priests and Levites, have not separated themselves from the surrounding peoples and their detestable practices, like those of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites.' 2 They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and they have mingled the holy seed with the peoples of the lands. Furthermore, the leaders and officials have been foremost in this unfaithfulness.
• Prov 8:18-19 : 18 Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. 19 My fruit is better than fine gold, even pure gold, and my yield surpasses choice silver.
• Prov 22:24 : 24 Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, and do not associate with one easily angered.
• Ps 101:3-5 : 3 I will not set any worthless thing before my eyes. I hate the actions of those who turn aside; it will not cling to me. 4 A perverse heart will depart from me; I will not associate with evil. 5 Whoever secretly slanders their neighbor, I will silence. Whoever has proud eyes and an arrogant heart, I cannot endure.
• Ps 106:35 : 35 but they mingled with the nations and adopted their ways.
• 1 John 1:5-7 : 5 This is the message we have heard from Him and declare to you: God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
• 1 John 3:12-14 : 12 Not like Cain, who was from the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because his deeds were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters. The one who does not love remains in death.