2 Corinthians 6:14
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
Study Note
Study Note
The injunction 'be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers' employs the agricultural image of mismatched draft animals (Deuteronomy 22:10 forbids yoking ox and donkey together) to describe incompatible covenantal alignments. The five rhetorical antitheses that follow — righteousness/unrighteousness, light/darkness, Christ/Belial, believer/infidel, temple of God/idols — reflect a dualistic ethical framework whose closest parallels are in the Dead Sea Scrolls (Community Rule's 'Two Spirits'), suggesting Paul drew on sectarian Jewish purity discourse. The passage concludes with a catena of Old Testament quotations (Leviticus 26:12; Isaiah 52:11; 2 Samuel 7:14; Isaiah 43:6) creating a scriptural mosaic that embeds the Corinthian community within Israel's covenant identity. The verse has been applied historically to marriage, business partnerships, and ecumenical relationships with varying results.
Other Translations
Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers: for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? or what communion hath light with darkness?
Become not yoked with others--unbelievers, for what partaking <FI>is there<Fi> to righteousness and lawlessness?
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?
Cross References
And thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make …
Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow …
And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou …
Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt …
Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with divers seeds: lest the fruit of thy seed which thou hast sown, and …
Thou shalt not wear a garment of divers sorts, as of woollen and linen together.
When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by …
And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth …
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be …
And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou …