Romans · Young's Literal Translation
Romans 7 Young's Literal Translation
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
1 Are ye ignorant, brethren — for to those knowing law I speak — that the law hath lordship over the man as long as he liveth?
1 Or don’t you know, brothers (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?
2 for 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;
2 For the woman that has a husband is bound by law to the husband while he lives, but if the husband dies, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
3 so, 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.
3 So then if, while the husband lives, she is joined to another man, she would be called an adulteress. But if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she is joined to another man.
4 So 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;
4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might produce fruit to God.
5 for when we were in the flesh, the passions of the sins, that [are] through the law, were working in our members, to bear fruit to the death;
5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law worked in our members to bring out fruit to death.
6 and 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.
6 But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that in which we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7 What, then, shall we say? the law [is] 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:
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.”
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.
8 But sin, finding occasion through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of coveting. For apart from the law, sin is dead.
9 And I was alive apart from law once, and the command having come, the sin revived, and I died;
9 I was alive apart from the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
10 and the command that [is] for life, this was found by me for death;
10 The commandment which was for life, this I found to be for death;
11 for the sin, having received an opportunity, through the command, did deceive me, and through it did slay [me];
11 for sin, finding occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.
12 so that the law, indeed, [is] holy, and the command holy, and righteous, and good.
12 Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, righteous, and good.
13 That 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,
13 Did then that which is good become death to me? May it never be! But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, was producing death in me through that which is good; that through the commandment sin might become exceedingly sinful.
14 for we have known that the law is spiritual, and I am fleshly, sold by the sin;
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am fleshly, sold under sin.
15 for that which I work, I do not acknowledge; for not what I will, this I practise, but what I hate, this I do.
15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I don’t practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do.
16 And if what I do not will, this I do, I consent to the law that [it is] good,
16 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, I consent to the law that it is good.
17 and now it is no longer I that work it, but the sin dwelling in me,
17 So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 for 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,
18 For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For desire is present with me, but I don’t find it doing that which is good.
19 for the good that I will, I do not; but the evil that I do not will, this I practise.
19 For the good which I desire, I don’t do; but the evil which I don’t desire, that I practice.
20 And 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.
20 But if what I don’t desire, that I do, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find, then, the law, that when I desire to do what is right, with me the evil is present,
21 I find then the law that, while I desire to do good, evil is present.
22 for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man,
22 For I delight in God’s law after the inward person,
23 and 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 [is] in my members.
23 but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.
24 A wretched man I [am]! who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me out of the body of this 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.
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! So then with the mind, I myself serve God’s law, but with the flesh, sin’s law.
Cross references (25)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 Romans 6:14; Romans 7:6; Romans 6:3; Proverbs 6:23; Romans 10:1
- 2 Genesis 2:23–24; 1 Corinthians 7:4; 1 Corinthians 7:39; Numbers 30:7–8
- 3 Exodus 20:14; Matthew 5:32; Mark 10:6–12; 1 Timothy 5:11–14; John 8:3–5
- 4 1 Peter 2:24; Galatians 5:22–23; Isaiah 54:5; Ephesians 5:23–27; Romans 8:2
- 5 Ephesians 2:3; Galatians 5:16–17; Galatians 5:24; Galatians 3:10; Romans 6:13
- 6 Galatians 3:23–25; 2 Corinthians 3:6; Romans 7:4; Romans 6:4; Galatians 2:19–20
- 7 Romans 3:20; Romans 4:15; Exodus 20:17; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Deuteronomy 5:21
- 8 Romans 7:11; 1 Corinthians 15:56; Romans 4:15; James 1:14–15; Romans 7:13
- 9 Galatians 3:10; Romans 8:7; Romans 7:4; James 2:10–11; Galatians 2:19
- 10 Leviticus 18:5; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Galatians 3:12; Romans 10:5; Ezekiel 20:21
- 11 Genesis 3:13; Romans 7:8; Jeremiah 17:9; Hebrews 3:13; James 1:26
- 12 1 Timothy 1:8; Psalm 119:137; Psalm 19:7–12; Romans 7:14; Psalm 119:172
- 13 James 1:13–15; Galatians 3:21; Romans 8:3; Romans 7:8–11; Romans 5:20
- 14 1 Kings 21:25; 2 Kings 17:17; Isaiah 52:3; 1 Kings 21:20; Romans 7:18
- 15 Galatians 5:17; Romans 7:19–20; Ecclesiastes 7:20; James 3:2; Nahum 1:7
- 16 Romans 7:12; 1 Timothy 1:8; Romans 7:14; Romans 7:22; Psalm 119:127–128
- 17 Romans 7:20; Romans 7:18; Philippians 3:8–9; James 4:5–6; Romans 4:7–8
- 18 John 3:6; Psalm 51:5; Galatians 5:17; Psalm 119:115–117; Romans 7:25
- 19 Romans 7:15
- 20 Romans 7:17
- 21 Ephesians 6:11–13; Romans 8:2; Romans 6:14; Romans 7:23; Romans 6:12
- 22 Psalm 1:2; Psalm 40:8; Psalm 119:35; Psalm 119:47–48; Hebrews 8:10
- 23 Galatians 5:17; James 4:1; Romans 8:2; Romans 6:19; Romans 7:25
- 24 Romans 6:6; 2 Timothy 4:18; Titus 2:14; Romans 8:2; 2 Corinthians 12:7–9
- 25 Galatians 5:17–24; Colossians 3:17; 2 Corinthians 12:9–10; 1 Peter 2:5; Romans 6:17
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
After having said that great evils had taken place, and that sin, taking occasion by the commandment, had grown stronger, and the opposite of what the Law mainly aimed at had been the result, and after having thrown the hearer into a great deal of perplexity, he goes on next to give the rationale of these events, after first clearing …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
… sign of our salvation, since it was the Lord Himself who saved them, because they could not be saved by their own instrumentality; and, therefore, when Paul sets forth human infirmity, he says: "For I know that there dwelleth in my flesh no good thing," showing that the "good thing" of our salvation is not from us, but from God.
For though a man "delight in the law of God after the inward man," what shall he do with that other law in his members which warreth against the law of his mind, and bringeth him into captivity to the law of sin, which is in his members?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
The Devil had used the flesh as an instrument against us; and Paul knowing this, saith, But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity, and the rest.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)
And again: "Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Then he introduces the Deliverer, [saying,] "The grace of Jesus Christ our Lord." And Isaiah declares this also, [when he says:] "Be ye strengthened, ye hands that hang down, and ye feeble knees; be ye encouraged, ye feeble-minded; be comforted, fear not: behold, …