Romans 7:3

Therefore, while her husband lives, if she has been with another man, she should be called an adulteress. But when her husband has died, she is freed from the law of her husband, such that, if she has been with another man, she is not an adulteress.

Catholic Public Domain Version

In The King James Version

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

In Context

2For example, a woman who is subject to a husband is obligated by the law while her husband lives. But when her husband has died, she is released from the law of her husband.

4And so, my brothers, you also have become dead to the law, through the body of Christ, so that you may be another one who has risen from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.

Read all of Romans 7

Cross References

Exodus 20:14You shall not commit adultery.

Numbers 5:13will have slept with another man, and if her husband cannot discover it, but the adultery is secret, and if it cannot be proved by witnesses, because she was not caught in the shameful act,

Ruth 2:13She said, “I have found favor before your eyes, my lord, who has consoled me, and you have spoken to the heart of your handmaid, who is unlike one of your young women.”

Matthew 5:32But I say to you, that anyone who will have dismissed his wife, except in the case of fornication, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever will have married her who has been dismissed commits adultery.

John 8:3Now the scribes and Pharisees brought forward a woman caught in adultery, and they stood her in front of them.

Matthew Henry on Romans 7:2-7

Observations Respecting the Law. ( a. d. 58.) 1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? 2 For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no… Read the whole commentary →

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