1 I say truth in Christ, I lie not, my :conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my :heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were anathema from the Christ for my :brethren’s sake, my :kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the worship, and the promises; 5 whose are the fathers, and of whom is the Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed unto the ages. Amen. 6 But not as though the word of :God hath failed. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel: 7 neither, because they are Abraham’s seed, are all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, the children of the flesh— they are not children of :God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed. 9 For the word of promise is this, According to this :season will I come, and :Sarah shall have a son. 10 And not only so; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, by our father :Isaac—11 for the children being not yet born, neither having done aught good or bad, that the purpose of :God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, 12 it was said to her [that], The elder shall serve the younger. 13 Even as it is written, :Jacob I loved, but :Esau I hated.
14 What shall we say therefore? Is there unrighteousness with :God? Be it not so. 15 For he saith to :Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. 16 So then it is :not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy. 17 For the scripture saith to :Pharaoh [that], For this very thing did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my :power, and that my :name be published abroad in all the earth. 18 So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. 19 Thou wilt say then to me, Why blameth he still? For who withstandeth his :purpose? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against :God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why madest thou me thus? 21 Or hath not the potter authority over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? 22 What if :God, willing to show :wrath, and to make his :power known, bore with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: 23 that he might make known the riches of his :glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, 24 us, whom he also called, not from Jews only, but also from the nations?
25 As he saith also in :Hosea,
I will call the one not my people, my people;
And the one not †beloved, beloved,
26 And it shall be, that in the place where it was said to them,
Ye are not my people, There shall they be called sons of the living God.
27 And Isaiah crieth concerning :Israel, If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved:
28 for the Lord will †execute his word upon the earth, finishing
and cutting it short. 29 And, as Isaiah hath said before,
Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
30 What shall we say then? That the nations, who followed not after righteousness, apprehended righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith: 31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of :stumbling; 33 even as it is written, Lo, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense: And who believeth on him shall not be put to shame.
