| New King James Version | NET Bible |
| 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 and sisters (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law is lord over a person 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 as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the 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. | 3So then, if she is joined to another man while her husband is alive, she will be called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she is joined to 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. | 4So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to 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 when we were in the flesh, the sinful desires, aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body 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 have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old 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 shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else if the law had not said, "Do 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 the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead. |
| 9I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. | 9And I was once alive apart from the law, but with the coming of the commandment sin became alive |
| 10And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. | 10and I died. So I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life brought death! |
| 11For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me. | 11For sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it I died. |
| 12Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. | 12So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, 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, become death to me? Absolutely not! But sin, so that it would be shown to be sin, produced death in me through what is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful. |
| 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 unspiritual, sold into slavery to 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 don't understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want--instead, I do what I hate. |
| 16If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. | 16But if I do what I don't want, I agree that the law is good. |
| 17But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. | 17But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in 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 lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. |
| 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 I do the very evil I do not want! |
| 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 me doing it but sin that lives in me. |
| 21I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. | 21So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. |
| 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 a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is 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 rescue 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. |
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