9:1 I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the holy Spirit in bearing me witness
9:2 that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart.
9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kin according to the flesh.
9:4 They are Israelites; theirs the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;
9:5 theirs the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah. God who is over all be blessed forever. Amen.
9:6 But it is not that the word of God has failed. For not all who are of Israel are Israel,
9:7 nor are they all children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but "It is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name."
9:8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.
9:9 For this is the wording of the promise, "About this time I shall return and Sarah will have a son."
9:10 And not only that, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one husband, our father Isaac ?
9:11 before they had yet been born or had done anything, good or bad, in order that God’s elective plan might continue,
9:12 not by works but by his call ?she was told, "The older shall serve the younger."
9:13 As it is written: "I loved Jacob but hated Esau."
9:14 What then are we to say? Is there injustice on the part of God? Of course not!
9:15 For he says to Moses: "I will show mercy to whom I will, I will take pity on whom I will."
9:16 So it depends not upon a person’s will or exertion, but upon God, who shows mercy.
9:17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "This is why I have raised you up, to show my power through you that my name may be proclaimed throughout the earth."
9:18 Consequently, he has mercy upon whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.
9:19 You will say to me then, "Why (then) does he still find fault? For who can oppose his will?"
9:20 But who indeed are you, a human being, to talk back to God? Will what is made say to its maker,"Why have you created me so?"
9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for a noble purpose and another for an ignoble one?
9:22 What if God, wishing to show his wrath and make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction?
9:23 This was to make known the riches of his glory to the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared previously for glory,
9:24 namely, us whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.
9:25 As indeed he says in Hosea: "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'
9:26 And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they shall be called children of the living God."
9:27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the Israelites were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will be saved;
9:28 for decisively and quickly will the Lord execute sentence upon the earth."
9:29 And as Isaiah predicted: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom and have been made like Gomorrah."
9:30 What then shall we say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have achieved it, that is, righteousness that comes from faith;
9:31 but that Israel, who pursued the law of righteousness, did not attain to that law?
9:32 Why not? Because they did it not by faith, but as if it could be done by works. They stumbled over the stone that causes stumbling,
9:33 as it is written: "Behold, I am laying a stone in Zion that will make people stumble and a rock that will make them fall, and whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame."