Romans 7:3

Therefore, a woman will be called {people will call a woman} an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she no longer has to obey that law. Then she will not be an adulteress if she marries another man.

Translation for Translators

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 is required by the law {the law requires a woman} to obey and be faithful to her husband as long as he is alive. But if her husband dies, she is freed from having to { no longer has to} obey the law about remaining married to her husband.

4Likewise, my fellow believers, just like people are free from having to obey any law after they die [MET], you and I have been freed { God has freed you and me} from having to obey all the Jewish rituals and laws [MET]. That is because it is as though we died with Christ when he was crucified. Now you and I belong to someone else [MET], like a woman who marries again after her husband dies belongs to another man. Specifically, you and I belong to Christ, who has come back to life {whom God has caused to live again after he died}, in order that we may live righteously [IDM] to honor God.

Read all of Romans 7

Cross References

Exodus 20:14Do not ◄commit adultery/have sex with anyone other than your spouse►.

Numbers 5:13but neither he nor anyone else knows if it is true or not, because no one saw her doing that.

Ruth 2:13She replied, “Sir, I hope you will continue to act kindly toward me. You have comforted/encouraged me, even though I am lower in status than any of your servant girls.”

Matthew 5:32But now listen to what I say to you: A man may divorce his wife only if she has committed adultery, and not for any other reason. If a man divorces his wife for any other reason, and he has sex with another woman, he makes his wife become one against whom he has committed adultery, because in God’s estimation she still is his wife. Also, if a man marries a woman who is divorced {whose husband has divorced her}, God considers him guilty of committing adultery.”

John 8:3Then men who taught the Jewish laws and some of [SYN] the Pharisee religious group brought a woman to him. She was seized { They had arranged to seize her} while she was having sex with a man who was not her husband. They made her stand up in front of the group that was listening to Jesus.

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 →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Romans 7:3