Romans 9

¹I speak the truth in Christ — I am not lying — my conscience bearing witness to me in the Holy Spirit,

²that great sorrow is mine, and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³For I was wishing that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

⁴who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises,

⁵of whom are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

⁶But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are of Israel are Israel.

⁷nor is it because they are seed of Abraham that they are all children; but 'In Isaac shall your offspring be named.'

⁸That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

⁹For this word is a word of promise: 'At this appointed time I will come, and there shall be for Sarah a son.'

¹⁰And not only that, but also Rebecca, having conceived by one man, Isaac our father —

¹¹for they had not yet been born, nor had they done anything good or base — so that God's purpose according to election might stand,

¹²it was said to her, that the greater will serve the lesser.

¹³just as it has been written: 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'

¹⁴What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? By no means!

¹⁵For to Moses he says: 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'

¹⁶So then, it is not of the one who wills nor of the one who runs, but of the God who shows mercy.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: 'For this very purpose I have raised you up, so that I might demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'

¹⁸So then, on whom he wills he has mercy, and whom he wills he hardens.

¹⁹You will say to me then: Why then does he still find fault? For who has withstood his purpose?

²⁰But rather, O man, who are you to be answering back to God? Will the formed thing say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'

²¹Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

²²But if God, willing to demonstrate the wrath and to make known his power, bore with much patience vessels of wrath fitted for destruction —

²³and in order that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory?

²⁴whom he also called, us, not only from Jews but also from Gentiles

²⁵As also in Hosea he says: I will call the one who is not my people my people, and the one who was not beloved, beloved.

²⁶And it will be that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they will be called sons of the living God.

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.

²⁹And just as Isaiah foretold: Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

³⁰What then shall we say? That Gentiles, the ones not pursuing righteousness, have grasped righteousness — righteousness, indeed, that is from faith.

³¹but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to a law of righteousness.

³²Why? Because not from faith but as if from works of law; for they stumbled over the stone of stumbling.

³³just as it has been written: 'Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame.'