Romans 9:1-33
9 I am telling the truth+ in Christ; I am not lying,+ since my conscience bears witness with me in holy spirit,
2 that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart.+
3 For I could wish that I myself were separated as the cursed one* from the Christ in behalf of my brothers,+ my relatives according to the flesh,+
4 who, as such, are Israelites,+ to whom belong the adoption as sons+ and the glory+ and the covenants+ and the giving of the Law+ and the sacred service*+ and the promises;+
5 to whom the forefathers+ belong and from whom the Christ [sprang] according to the flesh:+ God,+ who is over all,* [be] blessed forever. Amen.
6 However, it is not as though the word of God had failed.+ For not all who [spring] from Israel are really “Israel.”+
7 Neither because they are Abraham’s seed are they all children,+ but: “What will be called ‘your seed’ will be through Isaac.”+
8 That is, the children in the flesh+ are not really the children of God,+ but the children by the promise+ are counted as the seed.
9 For the word of promise was as follows: “At this time I will come and Sarah will have a son.”+
10 Yet not that case alone, but also when Re·bekʹah conceived twins+ from the one [man], Isaac our forefather:
11 for when they had not yet been born nor had practiced anything good or vile,+ in order that the purpose of God respecting the choosing might continue dependent, not upon works, but upon the One who calls,+
12 it was said to her: “The older will be the slave of the younger.”+
13 Just as it is written: “I loved Jacob, but Eʹsau I hated.”+
14 What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God?+ Never may that become so!
15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy upon whomever I do have mercy, and I will show compassion to whomever I do show compassion.”+
16 So, then, it depends, not upon the one wishing nor upon the one running, but upon God,+ who has mercy.+
17 For the Scripture says to Pharʹaoh: “For this very cause I have let you remain,* that in connection with you I may show my power, and that my name may be declared in all the earth.”+
18 So, then, upon whom he wishes he has mercy,+ but whom he wishes he lets become obstinate.+
19 You will therefore say to me: “Why does he yet find fault? For who has withstood his express will?”+
20 O man,+ who, then, really are you to be answering back to God?+ Shall the thing molded say to him that molded it, “Why did you make me this way?”+
21 What? Does not the potter+ have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for an honorable use, another for a dishonorable use?+
22 If, now, God, although having the will to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, tolerated with much long-suffering vessels of wrath made fit for destruction,+
23 in order that he might make known the riches+ of his glory upon vessels+ of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,+
24 namely, us, whom he called not only from among Jews but also from among nations,+ [what of it]?
25 It is as he says also in Ho·seʹa: “Those not my people+ I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved ‘beloved’;+
26 and in the place where it was said to them, ‘YOU are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”+
27 Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea,+ it is the remnant that will be saved.+
28 For Jehovah* will make an accounting on the earth, concluding it and cutting it short.”*+
29 Also, just as Isaiah had said aforetime: “Unless Jehovah* of armies+ had left a seed to us, we should have become just like Sodʹom, and we should have been made just like Go·morʹrah.”+
30 What shall we say, then? That people of the nations, although not pursuing righteousness, caught up with righteousness,+ the righteousness that results from faith;+
31 but Israel, although pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to the law.+
32 For what reason? Because he pursued it, not by faith, but as by works.+ They stumbled on the “stone of stumbling”;+
33 as it is written: “Look! I am laying in Zion a stone+ of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense,+ but he that rests his faith on it* will not come to disappointment.”*+
Footnotes
^ Lit., “anathema.” Gr. and Lat., a·naʹthe·ma.
^ “Sacred service.” Gr., la·treiʹa; J17(Heb.), weha·ʽavoh·dhahʹ, “and the service (worship).” See Ex 12:25 ftn.
^ For a discussion of “God, who is over all” see App 6D.
^ “I have let you remain,” J17,18,22; אAB, “I have raised you up”; Ex 9:16 in LXX, which Paul here quotes, “you have been preserved.”
^ See App 1D.
^ Or, “executing it speedily.”
^ See App 1D.
^ Or, “him.”
^ Or, “not be ashamed.”
