Limitless Word

1 Corinthians 10:7

or worship idols as some of them did. As the Scriptures say, “The people celebrated with feasting and drinking, and they indulged in pagan revelry.”
1 Corinthians 10:7 · New Living Translation
Parallel translations
  • WEB 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.”
  • KJV Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
  • BSB Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.”
  • NKJV And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.”
  • NASB Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.”

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Quick answer

Paul warns the Corinthians not to be idolaters like Israel, who worshiped the golden calf with feasting and revelry. Idolatry is a real danger even for those who have received God's blessings.

Overview

Quoting Exodus 32:6, Paul recalls Israel's idolatry at Sinai, where eating, drinking, and 'play' accompanied false worship. He applies this to the Corinthians' temptation to share in pagan idol-feasts. The privileges of the old covenant did not exempt Israel from judgment, and neither do the Corinthians' spiritual privileges in Christ exempt them from the call to flee idolatry.

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 13

  • Exod 32:6–8They 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, and rose up to play.
  • Ps 106:19–20They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image.
  • 1 Cor 6:9Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God’s Kingdom? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
  • Deut 9:12Yahweh said to me, “Arise, get down quickly from here; for your people whom you have brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them. They have made a molten image for themselves!”
  • 1 Cor 10:14Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
  • Deut 9:16–21I looked, and behold, you had sinned against Yahweh your God. You had made yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly out of the way which Yahweh had commanded you.
  • 1 Cor 5:11But 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 slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortionist. Don’t even eat with such a person.
  • Exod 32:17When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”
  • Exod 32:19As 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 hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.
  • 1 Jn 5:21Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
  • Exod 32:4He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
  • 1 Cor 14:20–22Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.
  • 1 Cor 8:7However, that knowledge isn’t in all men. But some, with consciousness of the idol until now, eat as of a thing sacrificed to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (4)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

Christ at the center

Christ crucified is the wisdom and power of God; he is our Passover sacrificed for us, the firstfruits of resurrection, the foundation on which everything is built.

How 1 Corinthians 10:7 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Original language

Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.