King James Version KJV
New Revised Standard NRS
1 Know 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?
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Do you not know, brothers and sisters —for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person's lifetime?
2 For 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.
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Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband.
3 So 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.
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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.
4 Wherefore, 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.
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In the same way, my friends, you 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.
5 For 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.
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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.
6 But 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.
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But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code but in the new life of the Spirit.
7 What 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.
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What then should 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. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, "You shall not covet."
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
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But sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. Apart from the law sin lies dead.
9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
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I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
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and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
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For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
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So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.
13 Was 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.
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Did what is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, working 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.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
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For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
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I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
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Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
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But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
18 For 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.
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For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
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For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
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Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
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So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
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For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,
23 But 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.
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but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
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Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 I 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.
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Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.