4 And the angel who talked with me came again and awakened me, like a man who is wakened out of his sleep.

² And said to me, What do you see? I said, I see, and behold, a lampstand all of gold, with its bowl [for oil] on the top of it and its seven lamps on it, and [there are] seven pipes to each of the seven lamps which are upon the top of it.^(A)

³ And there are two olive trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl and the other upon the left side of it [feeding it continuously with oil].^(B)

⁴ So I asked the angel who talked with me, What are these, my lord?

⁵ Then the angel who talked with me answered me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my lord.

⁶ Then he said to me, This [addition of the bowl to the candlestick, causing it to yield a ceaseless supply of oil from the olive trees] is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of Whom the oil is a symbol], says the Lord of hosts.

⁷ For who are you, O great mountain [of human obstacles]? Before Zerubbabel [who with Joshua had led the return of the exiles from Babylon and was undertaking the rebuilding of the temple, before him] you shall become a plain [a mere ^[a]molehill]! And he shall bring forth the finishing gable stone [of the new temple] with loud shoutings of the people, crying, Grace, grace to it!^(C)

⁸ Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁹ The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this house; his hands shall also finish it. Then you shall know (recognize and understand) that the Lord of hosts has sent me [His messenger] to you.

¹⁰ Who [with reason] despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice when they see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel. [These seven] are the eyes of the Lord which run to and fro throughout the whole earth.^(D)

¹¹ Then I said to him [the angel who talked with me], What are these two olive trees on the right side of the lampstand and on the left side of it?

¹² And a second time I said to him, What are these two olive branches which are beside the two golden tubes or spouts by which the golden oil is emptied out?

¹³ And he answered me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my lord.

¹⁴ Then said he, These are the two ^[b]sons of oil [Joshua the high priest and Zerubbabel the prince of Judah, the two anointed ones] who stand before the Lord of the whole earth [as His anointed instruments].^(E)

5 Again I lifted up my eyes and behold, I saw a scroll flying or floating in the air!

² And the angel said to me, What do you see? And I answered, I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits or thirty feet and its breadth is ten cubits or fifteen feet.

³ Then he said to me, This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off from henceforth according to it [the curse written on this subject on the scroll], and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off from henceforth according to it.^(A)

⁴ I will bring [the curse] forth, says the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him who swears falsely by My name; and it shall abide in the midst of his house and shall consume it, both its timber and its stones.

⁵ Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, Lift up now your eyes and see what this is that goes forth.

⁶ And I said, What is it? [What does it symbolize?] And he said, This that goes forth is an ephah[-sized vessel for separate grains all collected together]. This, he continued, is the symbol of the sinners mentioned above and is the resemblance of their iniquity throughout the whole land.^(B)

⁷ And behold, a round, flat weight of lead was lifted and there sat a woman in the midst of the ephah[-sized vessel].

⁸ And he said, This is lawlessness (wickedness)! And he thrust her back into the ephah[-sized vessel] and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth of it!

⁹ Then lifted I up my eyes and looked, and behold, there were two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah[-sized vessel] between the earth and the heavens.

¹⁰ Then said I to the angel who talked with me, Where are they taking the ephah[-sized vessel]?

¹¹ And he said to me, To the land of Shinar [Babylonia] to build it a house, and when it is finished, to set up the ephah[-sized vessel—the symbol of such sinners and their guilt] there upon its own base.

7 Do you not know, brethren—for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law—that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive?

² For [instance] a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.

³ Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her [she is free from that law]; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

⁴ Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

⁵ When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by [what] the Law [makes sin] were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, ^[a]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

⁶ But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].

⁷ What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. [For instance] I would not have known about covetousness [would have had no consciousness of sin or sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire [for one thing and another].^(A)

⁸ But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead [the sense of it is inactive and a lifeless thing].

⁹ Once I was alive, but quite apart from and unconscious of the Law. But when the commandment came, sin lived again and I died (was sentenced by the Law to death).^(B)

¹⁰ And the very legal ordinance which was designed and intended to bring life actually proved [to mean to me] death.^(C)

¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me [by taking its incentive] from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it [as a weapon], killed me.

¹² The Law therefore is holy, and [each] commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³ Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

¹² The Law therefore is holy, and [each] commandment is holy and just and good.

¹³ Did that which is good then prove fatal [bringing death] to me? Certainly not! It was sin, working death in me by using this good thing [as a weapon], in order that through the commandment sin might be shown up clearly to be sin, that the extreme malignity and immeasurable sinfulness of sin might plainly appear.

¹⁴ We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a creature of the flesh [carnal, unspiritual], having been sold into slavery under [the control of] sin.

¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [^[a]which my moral instinct condemns].

¹⁶ Now if I do [habitually] what is contrary to my desire, [that means that] I acknowledge and agree that the Law is good (morally excellent) and that I take sides with it.

¹⁷ However, it is no longer I who do the deed, but the sin [principle] which is at home in me and has possession of me.

¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot perform it. [I have the intention and urge to do what is right, but no power to carry it out.]

¹⁹ For I fail to practice the good deeds I desire to do, but the evil deeds that I do not desire to do are what I am [ever] doing.

²⁰ Now if I do what I do not desire to do, it is no longer I doing it [it is not myself that acts], but the sin [principle] which dwells within me [^[b]fixed and operating in my soul].

²¹ So I find it to be a law (rule of action of my being) that when I want to do what is right and good, evil is ever present with me and I am subject to its insistent demands.

²² For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inmost self [with my new nature].^(A)

²³ But I discern in my bodily members [^[c]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh] a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells in my bodily organs [^[d]in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh].

²⁴ O unhappy and pitiable and wretched man that I am! Who will release and deliver me from [the shackles of] this body of death?

²⁵ O thank God! [He will!] through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.