Paul's Letter to the Romans, Chapter 9
{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 Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac
will your seed be called."[1] {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."[2] {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."[3] {9:13} Even as it is written, "Jacob I
loved, but Esau I hated."[4]
{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."[5] {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."[6] {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?"[7] {9:21} Or
hasn't 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."[8]
{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]
{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."[10]
{9:29} As Isaiah has said before,
"Unless the Lord of [11>]Armies[<11] had left us a seed,
we would have become like Sodom,
and would have been made like Gomorrah."[12]
{9:30} What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow
after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness
which is of faith; {9:31} but Israel, following after a law of
righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness. {9:32} Why?
Because they didn't 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."[13]
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Footnotes:
[1] {9:7} Genesis 21:12
[2] {9:9} Genesis 18:10,14
[3] {9:12} Genesis 25:23
[4] {9:13} Malachi 1:2-3
[5] {9:15} Exodus 33:19
[6] {9:17} Exodus 9:16
[7] {9:20} Isaiah 29:16; 45:9
[8] {9:25} Hosea 2:23
[9] {9:26} Hosea 1:10
[10] {9:28} Isaiah 10:22-23
[11] {9:29} Greek: Sabaoth (for Hebrew: Tze'va'ot)
[12] {9:29} Isaiah 1:9
[13] {9:33} Isaiah 8:14; 28:16
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