For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
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Mark 7:21-23 sits inside this longer paragraph.
When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable. He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him, because it doesn’t go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, making all foods clean?” He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
Parallel Translations
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For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts,
covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness.
All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
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For from with in even oute of the herte of men proceade evill thoughtes: advantry fornicacion murder
theeft coveteousnes wickednes diceyte vnclennes and a wicked eye blasphemy pryde folysshnes:
all these evyll thinges come from with in and defile a man.
Show all 3 translations
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For from within, euen out of the heart of men, proceede euill thoughtes, adulteries, fornications, murthers,
Theftes, couetousnes, wickednes, deceite, vncleannes, a wicked eye, backbiting, pride, foolishnesse.
All these euill things come from within, and defile a man.
Cross-references (56)
- Jeremiah 17:9 (v21) The heart is deceitful above all things and it is exceedingly corrupt. Who can know it?
- Romans 8:7-8 (v21) because the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the…
- James 4:1-3 (v21) Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? You lust, and don’t have.…
- Matthew 15:19 (v21) For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
- Galatians 5:19-21 (v21) Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred,…
Show all 56 cross-references
- Ezekiel 38:10 (v21) “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “It will happen in that day that things will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil plan.
- Acts 8:22 (v21) Repent therefore of this, your wickedness, and ask God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you.
- Jeremiah 4:14 (v21) Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long will your evil thoughts lodge within you?
- Matthew 9:4 (v21) Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts?
- James 2:4 (v21) haven’t you shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
- Proverbs 4:23 (v21) Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.
- Matthew 23:25-28 (v21) “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of…
- Mark 7:15 (v23) There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that…
- Luke 16:15 (v21) He said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men…
- James 1:14-15 (v21) But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin. The sin, when…
- Psalms 14:3 (v21) They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
- Psalms 53:3 (v21) Every one of them has gone back. They have become filthy together. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
- Psalms 58:2-3 (v21) No, in your heart you plot injustice. You measure out the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked go astray from the womb. They are…
- Isaiah 59:7 (v21) Their feet run to evil, and they hurry to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Desolation and destruction are in…
- Matthew 20:15 (v22) Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’
- 1 Corinthians 3:17 (v23) If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is holy, which you are.
- Titus 1:15 (v23) To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their mind and their conscience…
- Genesis 6:5 (v21) Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually…
- Genesis 8:21 (v21) Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the…
- Job 14:4 (v21) Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
- Job 15:14-16 (v21) What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he puts no trust in his holy…
- Job 25:4 (v21) How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
- Psalms 14:1 (v21) The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt. They have done abominable deeds. There is no one who does good.
- Proverbs 15:25 (v21) Yahweh will uproot the house of the proud, but he will keep the widow’s borders intact.
- Ecclesiastes 7:25 (v22) I turned around, and my heart sought to know and to search out, and to seek wisdom and the scheme of things, and to know that wickedness is…
- Obadiah 1:3-4 (v22) The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high, who says in his heart, ‘Who…
- Matthew 6:23 (v22) But if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the…
- Mark 7:18 (v23) He said to them, “Are you also without understanding? Don’t you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can’t defile him,
- Acts 5:4 (v21) While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in…
- Romans 7:8 (v21) But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
- 2 Corinthians 10:5 (v22) throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to…
- 1 Peter 2:15 (v22) For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
- 1 Peter 4:2-3 (v21) that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough…
- 1 Peter 5:5 (v22) Likewise, you younger ones, be subject to the elder. Yes, all of you clothe yourselves with humility, to subject yourselves to one another;…
- Jude 1:8 (v23) Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings.
- Deuteronomy 15:9 (v22) Beware that there not be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, “The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,” and your eye be evil…
- Deuteronomy 28:54 (v22) The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward the…
- Deuteronomy 28:56 (v22) The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness,…
- 1 Samuel 18:8-9 (v22) Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have creditd David with ten thousands, and they have only credited me…
- 2 Chronicles 32:25-26 (v22) But Hezekiah didn’t reciprocate appropriate to the benefit done for him, because his heart was lifted up. Therefore there was wrath on him,…
- 2 Chronicles 32:31 (v22) However concerning the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent to him to inquire of the wonder that was done in the land, God left…
- Psalms 10:4 (v22) The wicked, in the pride of his face, has no room in his thoughts for God.
- Psalms 53:1 (v21) The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and have done abominable iniquity. There is no one who does good.
- Proverbs 12:23 (v22) A prudent man keeps his knowledge, but the hearts of fools proclaim foolishness.
- Proverbs 22:15 (v22) Folly is bound up in the heart of a child: the rod of discipline drives it far from him.
- Proverbs 23:6 (v22) Don’t eat the food of him who has a stingy eye, and don’t crave his delicacies:
- Proverbs 24:9 (v22) The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men.
- Proverbs 27:22 (v22) Though you grind a fool in a mortar with a pestle along with grain, yet his foolishness will not be removed from him.
- Proverbs 28:22 (v22) A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn’t know that poverty waits for him.
- Romans 7:5 (v21) For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
- Titus 3:3 (v21) For we were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (7 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v22 All kind of craftiness whereby men profit themselves by…
All kind of craftiness whereby men profit themselves by other men’s losses.
Cankered malice.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv21–23 21 For from within, out of the heart of…
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
Ver. 21. Evil thoughts, adulteries, &c.] Even all sorts of sins against both the tables of the law, as is well observed by Grotius in loc. Here is pride and folly against the first commandment; blasphemy against the second and third; of sins against the fifth commandment he had spoken before; and here are murders against the sixth; adultery and fornication against the seventh; thefts and covetousness against the eighth; guilt against the ninth; evil thoughts against the tenth. See what a foul fountain, what a seminary of sin, man’s heart is. If his tongue be not a city, or a country, but a world of wickedness, Jas 3:6, what then is the heart!
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv21–23 Thefts,.... These also are mentioned in Matthew, but Mark…
Thefts,.... These also are mentioned in Matthew, but Mark omits "false witnesses", and adds the following; which, excepting "blasphemy", are not taken notice of by the other evangelists;
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; See Gill on Mat 15:19.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v22 Wickedness - The word means ill natured, cruelty, inhumanity,…
Wickedness - The word means ill natured, cruelty, inhumanity, and all malevolent affections. Foolishness - Directly contrary to sobriety of thought and discourse: all kind of wild imaginations and extravagant passions.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v22 22. An evil eye — An envious eye.
22. An evil eye — An envious eye.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv21–22 21. evil thoughts] Thirteen forms of evil are here…
21. evil thoughts] Thirteen forms of evil are here noticed as proceeding from the heart. The first seven in the plural number, are predominant actions; the latter six in the singular, dispositions. Comp. the blending of the singular and plural in St Paul’s enumeration of the works of the flesh, Gal_5:19-21.
adulteries] The preferable order appears to be fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetousnesses, wickednesses.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v22 (22) Covetousness, wickedness.—The Greek words for these are, like…
(22) Covetousness, wickedness.—The Greek words for these are, like the preceding, in the plural, as pointing to the manifold forms in which the sins show themselves.
An evil eye.—As explained by Mat_20:15 (where see Note), the “evil eye” is that which looks askance on the good of others—i.e., envy in its most malignant form.
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Pride.—Better, perhaps, haughtiness. This is the only passage in the New Testament where the word so translated occurs. The cognate adjective meets us in Rom_1:30; 2Ti_3:2.
Foolishness.—This, again, is a rare word in the New Testament, meeting us only in 2Co_11:1; 2Co_11:17; 2Co_11:21. As interpreted by Pro_14:18; Pro_15:21, it is the folly which consists in the absence of the fear of God, the infatuation of impiety.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.