1 A re ye ignorant, brethren -- for to those knowing law I speak -- that the law hath lordship over the man as long as he liveth?

Do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law—that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive?

2 f or the married woman to the living husband hath been bound by law, and if the husband may die, she hath been free from the law of the husband;

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.

3 s o, then, the husband being alive, an adulteress she shall be called if she may become another man's; and if the husband may die, she is free from the law, so as not to be an adulteress, having become another man's.

Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

4 S o that, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of the Christ, for your becoming another's, who out of the dead was raised up, that we might bear fruit to God;

Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

5 f or when we were in the flesh, the passions of the sins, that through the law, were working in our members, to bear fruit to the death;

When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by the Law were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

6 a nd now we have ceased from the law, that being dead in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter.

But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under the old code of written regulations, but of the Spirit in newness.

7 W hat, then, shall we say? the law sin? let it not be! but the sin I did not know except through law, for also the covetousness I had not known if the law had not said:

What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. I would not have known about covetousness if the Law had not said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire.

8 ` Thou shalt not covet;' and the sin having received an opportunity, through the command, did work in me all covetousness -- for apart from law sin is dead.

But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead.

9 A nd I was alive apart from law once, and the command having come, the sin revived, and I died;

Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death).

10 a nd the command that for life, this was found by me for death;

And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved death.

11 f or the sin, having received an opportunity, through the command, did deceive me, and through it did slay;

For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it, killed me.

12 s o that the law, indeed, holy, and the command holy, and righteous, and good.

The Law therefore is holy, and commandment is holy and just and good.

13 T hat which is good then, to me hath it become death? let it not be! but the sin, that it might appear sin, through the good, working death to me, that the sin might become exceeding sinful through the command,

Did that which is good then prove fatal to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing, in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

14 f or we have known that the law is spiritual, and I am fleshly, sold by the sin;

We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh, having been sold into slavery under sin.

15 f or that which I work, I do not acknowledge; for not what I will, this I practise, but what I hate, this I do.

For I do not understand my own actions. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe '> which my moral instinct condemns].

16 A nd if what I do not will, this I do, I consent to the law that good,

Now if I do what is contrary to my desire, I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

17 a nd now it is no longer I that work it, but the sin dwelling in me,

However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin which is at home in me and has possession of me.

18 f or I have known that there doth not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, good: for to will is present with me, and to work that which is right I do not find,

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it.

19 f or the good that I will, I do not; but the evil that I do not will, this I practise.

For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am doing.

20 A nd if what I do not will, this I do, it is no longer I that work it, but the sin that is dwelling in me.

Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it, but the sin which dwells within me '> fixed and operating in my soul].

21 I find, then, the law, that when I desire to do what is right, with me the evil is present,

So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.

22 f or I delight in the law of God according to the inward man,

For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self.

23 a nd I behold another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of the sin that in my members.

But I discern in my bodily members '> in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs '> in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

24 A wretched man I! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?

O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from this body of death?

25 I thank God -- through Jesus Christ our Lord; so then, I myself indeed with the mind do serve the law of God, and with the flesh, the law of sin.

O thank God! through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.