9:1 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,
9:2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
9:4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
9:5 of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
9:7 Neither, because they are Abrahams seed, are they all children. But, In Isaac will your seed be called.
9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.
9:9 For this is a word of promise, At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.
9:10 Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.
9:11 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,
9:12 it was said to her, The elder will serve the younger.
9:13 Even as it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!
9:15 For he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
9:16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.
9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
9:18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
9:19 You will say then to me, Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?
9:20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, Why did you make me like this?
9:21 Or hasnt the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
9:22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,
9:23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
9:24 us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
9:25 As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved.
9:26 It will be that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, There they will be called children of the living God.
9:27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel, If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
9:28 for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.
9:29 As Isaiah has said before, Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.
9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didnt follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
9:31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didnt arrive at the law of righteousness.
9:32 Why? Because they didnt seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;
9:33 even as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.