1. Or are ye ignorant, brethren (for I speak to men who know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man for so long time as he liveth?
2. For the woman that hath a husband is bound by law to the husband while he liveth; but if the husband die, she is discharged from the law of the husband.
3. So then if, while the husband liveth, she be joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if the husband die, she is free from the law, so that she is no adulteress, though she be joined to another man.
4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ; that ye should be joined to another,
5. For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were through the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6. But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of the spirit, and not in oldness of the letter.
7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit, I had not known sin, except through the law: for I had not known coveting, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet:
8. but sin, finding occasion, wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting: for apart from the law sin is dead.
9. And I was alive apart from the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died;
10. and the commandment, which was unto life, this I found to be unto death:
11. for sin, finding occasion, through the commandment beguiled me, and through it slew me.