| New King James Version | English Standard Version |
| 1Or do you not know, brethren (for I speak to those who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? | 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? |
| 2For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. | 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. |
| 3So then if, while her husband lives, she marries another man, she will be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from that law, so that she is no adulteress, though she has married another man. | 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. |
| 4Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another—to Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. | 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. |
| 5For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. | 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. |
| 6But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. | 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. |
| 7What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” | 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.” |
| 8But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law sin was dead. | 8But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. |
| 9I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. | 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. |
| 10And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. | 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. |
| 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. | 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. |
| 12Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. | 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. |
| 13Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. | 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. |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. | 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. |
| 15For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. | 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. |
| 16If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. | 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. |
| 17But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. | 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. |
| 18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. | 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. |
| 19For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. | 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. |
| 20Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. | 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. |
| 21I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. | 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. | 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, |
| 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. | 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. |
| 24O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? | 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? |
| 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. | 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. |
| The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. | 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. |
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