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1 Corinthians 10:6-11

Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Let’s not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

World English Bible · Public Domain
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1 Corinthians 10:6-11 sits inside this longer paragraph.

Now I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food; and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. However with most of them, God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” Let’s not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell. Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents. Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands be careful that he doesn’t fall.

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

    Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”

    Let’s not commit sexual immorality, as some of them committed, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell.

    Let’s not test Christ, as some of them tested, and perished by the serpents.

    Don’t grumble, as some of them also grumbled, and perished by the destroyer.

    Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

  • TYNDALE Tyndale New Testament (1534)

    These are ensamples to vs that we shuld not lust after evyll thinges as they lusted.

    Nether be ye worshippers of Images as were some of them accordynge as it is written: The people sate doune to eate and drynke and rose vp agayne to playe.

    Nether let vs comit fornicacion as some of them committed fornicacion and were destroyed in one daye.xxiii. thousande.

    Nether let vs tempte Christ as some of them tempted and were destroyed of serpentes.

    Nether murmure ye as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer.

    All these thinges happened vnto them for ensamples and were written to put vs in remembraunce whom the endes of the worlde are come apon.

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  • GNV Geneva Bible (1599)

    Nowe these things are our ensamples, to the intent that we should not lust after euil things as they also lusted.

    Neither bee ye idolaters as were some of them, as it is written, The people sate downe to eate and drinke, and rose vp to play.

    Neither let vs commit fornication, as some of them committed fornication, and fell in one day three and twentie thousand.

    Neither let vs tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted him, and were destroyed of serpents.

    Neither murmure ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer.

    Nowe all these things came vnto them for ensamples, and were written to admonish vs, vpon whome the endes of the world are come.

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Cross-references (69)

  • Romans 15:4 (v11) For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that through perseverance and through encouragement of the…
  • Exodus 32:6-8 (v7) They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink,…
  • Numbers 25:1-9 (v8) Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab; for they called the people to the…
  • Numbers 21:5-6 (v9) The people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,…
  • Psalms 78:18 (v9) They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.
Show all 68 cross-references
  • Numbers 14:2 (v10) All the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron. The whole congregation said to them, “We wish that we had died in the…
  • Hebrews 3:8-11 (v9) don’t harden your hearts, as in the rebellion, like as in the day of the trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me and tried…
  • Numbers 16:41 (v10) But on the next day all the congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed…
  • Numbers 14:37 (v10) even those men who brought up an evil report of the land, died by the plague before Yahweh.
  • Psalms 106:19-20 (v7) They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:18 (v8) Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
  • Psalms 106:29 (v8) Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.
  • Philippians 2:14 (v10) Do all things without complaining and arguing,
  • Exodus 17:2 (v9) Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you…
  • Exodus 17:7 (v9) He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is…
  • Deuteronomy 6:16 (v9) You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.
  • 1 Chronicles 21:15 (v10) God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was about to destroy, Yahweh saw, and he relented of the disaster, and said to the…
  • Psalms 78:56 (v9) Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies,
  • Romans 13:11 (v11) Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first…
  • Jude 1:7 (v6) Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone…
  • Exodus 23:20-21 (v9) “Behold, I send an angel before you, to keep you by the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Pay attention to him,…
  • 2 Samuel 24:16 (v10) When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed…
  • Psalms 106:25 (v10) but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to Yahweh’s voice.
  • 1 Corinthians 6:9 (vv7–8) Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor…
  • Deuteronomy 9:12 (v7) Yahweh said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They…
  • Psalms 95:9 (v9) when your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.
  • Psalms 106:14 (v9) but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland.
  • 1 Corinthians 9:10 (v11) or does he say it assuredly for our sake? Yes, it was written for our sake, because he who plows ought to plow in hope, and he who threshes…
  • 1 Corinthians 10:11 (v6) Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
  • 2 Peter 2:6 (v6) and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live…
  • 1 John 2:18 (v11) Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this we…
  • Exodus 12:23 (v10) For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass…
  • 1 Corinthians 10:14 (v7) Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
  • Philippians 4:5 (v11) Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.
  • Hebrews 4:11 (v6) Let’s therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
  • Jude 1:16 (v10) These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain…
  • Numbers 11:4 (v6) The mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly; and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, “Who will give us meat to…
  • Deuteronomy 9:16-21 (v7) I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molded calf. You had quickly turned away from the…
  • Zephaniah 3:6-7 (v6) I have cut off nations. Their battlements are desolate. I have made their streets waste, so that no one passes by. Their cities are…
  • Romans 4:23 (v11) Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,
  • Hebrews 10:28-30 (v9) A man who disregards Moses’ law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment do you think he…
  • Revelation 2:14 (v8) But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to throw a stumbling…
  • Exodus 15:24 (v10) The people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”
  • Exodus 16:2-9 (v10) The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of Israel…
  • Exodus 17:2-3 (v10) Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you…
  • Numbers 11:31-34 (v6) A wind from Yahweh went out and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, about a day’s journey on this side, and a day’s…
  • Numbers 14:27-30 (v10) “How long shall I bear with this evil congregation that complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel, which…
  • Numbers 16:46-49 (v10) Moses said to Aaron, “Take your censer, put fire from the altar in it, lay incense on it, carry it quickly to the congregation, and make…
  • Psalms 106:14-15 (v6) but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.
  • 1 Corinthians 5:11 (v7) But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a…
  • Hebrews 10:25 (v11) not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day…
  • Hebrews 10:37 (v11) “In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait.
  • Exodus 32:17 (v7) When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”
  • Exodus 32:19 (v7) As soon as he came near to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his…
  • Acts 12:23 (v10) Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.
  • 1 Peter 3:21 (v6) This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you—not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward…
  • 1 John 5:21 (v7) Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
  • Exodus 32:4 (v7) He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods,…
  • 2 Chronicles 32:21 (v10) Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he…
  • Psalms 78:27-31 (v6) He also rained meat on them as the dust, winged birds as the sand of the seas. He let them fall in the middle of their camp, around their…
  • Matthew 13:39-42 (v10) The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. As therefore the darnel weeds are…
  • 2 Thessalonians 1:7-8 (v10) and to give relief to you who are afflicted with us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire,…
  • Romans 5:14 (v6) Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren’t like Adam’s disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of…
  • 1 Corinthians 7:29 (v11) But I say this, brothers: the time is short, that from now on, both those who have wives may be as though they had none;
  • 1 Corinthians 14:20-22 (v7) Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature. In the law it is written, “By men of strange…
  • Hebrews 11:28 (v10) By faith, he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them.
  • Revelation 16:1 (v10) I heard a loud voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God on the earth!”
  • Hebrews 9:24 (v6) For Christ hasn’t entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in…

68 distinct cross-references across this passage (69 total citations).

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (24 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6–11 6. Now these things were types to us. He…

6. Now these things were types to us. He warns us in still more explicit terms, that we have to do with the punishment that was inflicted upon them, so that they are a lesson to us, that we may not provoke the anger of God as they did. “God,” says he, “in punishing them has set before us, as in a picture, his severity, that, instructed by their example, we may learn to fear.” Of the term type I shall speak presently. Only for the present I should wish my readers to know, that it is not without consideration that I have given a different rendering from that of the old translation, and of Erasmus. For they obscure Paul’s meaning, or at least they do not bring out with sufficient clearness this idea — that God has in that people presented a picture for our instruction.

That we might not lust after evil things. He now enumerates particular instances, or certain examples, that he may take occasion from this to reprove some vices, as to which it was proper that the Corinthians should be admonished. I am of opinion, that the history that is here referred to is what is recorded in Numbers 11:4, etc., though others refer it to what is recorded in Numbers 26:64. The people, after having been for some time fed with manna, at length took a dislike to it, and began to desire other kinds of food, which they had been accustomed to partake of in Egypt. Now they sinned in two ways, for they despised the peculiar gift of God, and they eagerly longed after a variety of meats and delicacies, contrary to the will of God. The Lord, provoked by this lawless appetite, inflicted upon the people a grievous blow. Hence the place was called the

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graves of lust, because there they buried those whom the Lord had smitten. (Numbers 11:34.)

The Lord by this example testified how much he hates those lusts that arise from dislike of his gifts, and from our lawless appetite, for whatever goes beyond the measure that God has prescribed is justly reckoned evil and unlawful.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv6, 9, 11 An amplifying of the example against them which are…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–11 6 Now these things were our examples, to the…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6–11 Our examples; our types or patterns (as the Greek…
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 9, 11 Observe here, 1. The sin charged upon the Israelites…
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v6 The apostle, having recited their privileges, proceeds here to…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–11 Now these things were our examples,.... Or "types"; that…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6–11 Now these things were our examples - Showing what…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6–11 Verse 6. These things were our examples] The punishments…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 11 1Co 10:7-8. Neither be ye idolaters — By partaking…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6–11 Now these things - The judgments inflicted on them…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6, 9, 11 In a figure of us. That is, this was…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6–11 were--Greek, "came to pass as."
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6–11 6-13. Thus far the apostle has typically endowed the…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–11 6. Now these things were our examples] Literally, types…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6, 8, 9, 10, 11 (6) Now these things were our examples.—Better, Now these…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–11 These things were our examples. If this rendering be…
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv6–11 6–10. Now these things were our examples. Beacon lights…
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 10, 11 6. “And these things became our types, that we…
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv6–11 Now these things were our examples, to the intent…
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v8 fell in one day
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv6, 11 Warning against the corruption of idolatry and related sins:
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 9, 11 people who worship idols
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6–10 10:6 evil things: see Num 11:4-6, 34.
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