| English Standard Version | New International Version |
| 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? | 1Do you not know, brothers and sisters--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? |
| 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 example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him. |
| 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 she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries 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. | 4So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for 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 realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us, so that we bore fruit for 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, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. |
| 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 sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "You shall 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, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. |
| 9I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. | 9Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. |
| 10The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. | 10I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. |
| 11For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. | 11For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death. |
| 12So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous 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. | 13Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. |
| 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. | 14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to 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. | 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. |
| 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. | 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. |
| 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. | 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living 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 good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. |
| 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. | 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing. |
| 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 what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. |
| 21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. | 21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. |
| 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, | 22For in my inner being I delight in God's law; |
| 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 at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. |
| 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? | 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to 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. | 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to 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. | New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. |
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