English Standard Version ESV
The Darby Translation DBY
1 Or 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?
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Are ye ignorant, brethren, (for I speak to those knowing law,) that law rules over a man as long as he lives?
2 For 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.
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For the married woman is bound by law to her husband so long as he is alive; but if the husband should die, she is clear from the law of the husband:
3 Accordingly, 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.
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so then, the husband being alive, she shall be called an adulteress if she be to another man; but if the husband should die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, though she be to another man.
4 Likewise, 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.
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So that, my brethren, *ye* also have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ, to be to another, who has been raised up from among [the] dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
5 For 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.
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For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins, which [were] by the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death;
6 But 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.
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but now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.
7 What 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. ”
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What shall we say then? [is] the law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin, unless by law: for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust;
8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
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but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin [was] dead.
9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
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But *I* was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived, but *I* died.
10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
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And the commandment, which [was] for life, was found, [as] to me, itself [to be] unto death:
11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
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for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me].
12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
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So that the law indeed [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Did 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.
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Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be the thought. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good; in order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
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For we know that the law is spiritual: but *I* am fleshly, sold under sin.
15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
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For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practise.
16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
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But if what I do not will, this I practise, I consent to the law that [it is] right.
17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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Now then [it is] no longer *I* [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me.
18 For 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.
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For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right [I find] not.
19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
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For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do.
20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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But if what *I* do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer *I* [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me.
21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
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I find then the law upon *me* who will to practise what is right, that with *me* evil is there.
22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
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For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man:
23 but 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.
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but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
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O wretched man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?
25 Thanks 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.
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I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then *I* *myself* with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law.
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2025
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.