Romans 7

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 As people who are familiar with the Law, brothers, you cannot have forgotten that the law can control aperson only during that person's lifetime.	1 Know you not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) that the law hath dominion over a man, as long as it liveth?
2 A married woman, for instance, is bound to her husband by law, as long as he lives, but when herhusband dies all her legal obligation to him as husband is ended.	2 For the woman that hath an husband, whilst her husband liveth is bound to the law. But if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3 So if she were to have relations with another man while her husband was still alive, she would betermed an adulteress; but if her husband dies, her legal obligation comes to an end and if she then has relationswith another man, that does not make her an adulteress.	3 Therefore, whilst her husband liveth, she shall be called an adulteress, if she be with another man: but if her husband be dead, she is delivered from the law of her husband; so that she is not an adulteress, if she be with another man.
4 In the same way you, my brothers, through the body of Christ have become dead to the Law and soyou are able to belong to someone else, that is, to him who was raised from the dead to make us live fruitful y for God.	4 Therefore, my brethren, you also are become dead to the law, by the body of Christ; that you may belong to another, who is risen again from the dead, that we may bring forth fruit to God.
5 While we were stil living by our natural inclinations, the sinful passions aroused by the Law wereworking in al parts of our bodies to make us live lives which were fruitful only for death.	5 For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are released from the Law, having died to what was binding us, and so we are in a newservice, that of the spirit, and not in the old service of a written code.	6 But now we are loosed from the law of death, wherein we were detained; so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What should we say, then? That the Law itself is sin? Out of the question! All the same, if it had notbeen for the Law, I should not have known what sin was; for instance, I should not have known what it meant tocovet if the Law had not said: You are not to covet.	7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid. But I do not know sin, but by the law; for I had not known concupiscence, if the law did not say: Thou shalt not covet.
8 But, once it found the opportunity through that commandment, sin produced in me al kinds ofcovetousness; as long as there is no Law, sin is dead.	8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9 Once, when there was no Law, I used to be alive; but when the commandment came, sin came to life	9 And I lived some time without the law. But when the commandment came, sin revived,
10 and I died. The commandment was meant to bring life but I found it brought death,	10 And I died. And the commandment that was ordained to life, the same was found to be unto death to me.
11 because sin, finding its opportunity by means of the commandment, beguiled me and, by means of it,kil ed me.	11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, seduced me, and by it killed me.
12 So then, the Law is holy, and what it commands is holy and upright and good.	12 Wherefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Does that mean that something good resulted in my dying? Out of the question! But sin, in order to beidentified as sin, caused my death through that good thing, and so it is by means of the commandment that sinshows its unbounded sinful power.	13 Was that then which is good, made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it may appear sin, by that which is good, wrought death in me; that sin, by the commandment, might become sinful above measure.
14 We are wel aware that the Law is spiritual: but I am a creature of flesh and blood sold as a slave tosin.	14 For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 I do not understand my own behaviour; I do not act as I mean to, but I do things that I hate.	15 For that which I work, I understand not. For I do not that good which I will; but the evil which I hate, that I do.
16 While I am acting as I do not want to, I still acknowledge the Law as good,	16 If then I do that which I will not, I consent to the law, that it is good.
17 so it is not myself acting, but the sin which lives in me.	17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 And really, I know of nothing good living in me -- in my natural self, that is -- for though the wil to dowhat is good is in me, the power to do it is not:	18 For I know that there dwelleth not in me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to will, is present with me; but to accomplish that which is good, I find not.
19 the good thing I want to do, I never do; the evil thing which I do not want -- that is what I do.	19 For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do.
20 But every time I do what I do not want to, then it is not myself acting, but the sin that lives in me.	20 Now if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 So I find this rule: that for me, where I want to do nothing but good, evil is close at my side.	21 I find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is present with me.
22 In my inmost self I dearly love God's law,	22 For I am delighted with the law of God, according to the inward man:
23 but I see that acting on my body there is a different law which battles against the law in my mind. So Iam brought to be a prisoner of that law of sin which lives inside my body.	23 But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating me in the law of sin, that is in my members.
24 What a wretched man I am! Who wil rescue me from this body doomed to death?	24 Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 God -- thanks be to him -- through Jesus Christ our Lord. So it is that I myself with my mind obey thelaw of God, but in my disordered nature I obey the law of sin.	25 The grace of God, by Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with the mind serve the law of God; but with the flesh, the law of sin.