| English Standard Version | King James Bible |
| 1Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? | 1Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? |
| 2For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. | 2For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. |
| 3Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. | 3So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. |
| 4Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. | 4Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. |
| 5For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. | 5For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. |
| 6But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. | 6But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. |
| 7What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” | 7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. |
| 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. | 8But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. |
| 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. | 9For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. |
| 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. | 10And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. |
| 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. | 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. |
| 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. | 12Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. |
| 13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. | 13Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. | 14For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. |
| 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. | 15For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. |
| 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. | 16If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. |
| 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. | 17Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. |
| 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. | 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. |
| 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. | 19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. |
| 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. | 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. |
| 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. | 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, | 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: |
| 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. | 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. |
| 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? | 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? |
| 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. | 25I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. |
|
