Romans 9

¹I am speaking the truth in Christ —I am not lying ; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit —

²that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart .

³For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers , my kinsmen according to the flesh .

⁴They are Israelites , and to them belong the adoption , the glory , the covenants , the giving of the law , the worship , and the promises .

⁵To them belong the patriarchs , and from their race , according to the flesh , is the Christ , 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 descended from Israel belong to Israel ,

⁷and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring , but Through Isaac shall your offspring be named .

⁸This 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 offspring .

⁹For this is what the promise said : About this time next year I will return , and Sarah shall have a son .

¹⁰And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac ,

¹¹though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad —in order that God’s purpose of election might continue , not because of works but because of him who calls —

¹²she was told , The older will serve the younger .

¹³As it is written , Jacob I loved , but Esau I hated .

¹⁴What shall we say then ? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means !

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

¹⁶So then it depends not on human will or exertion , but on God , who has mercy .

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

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

¹⁹You will say to me then , Why does he still find fault ? For who can resist his will ?

²⁰But who are you , O man , to answer back to God ? Will what is molded say to its molder , Why have you made me like this ?

²¹Has the potter no right over the clay , to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use ?

²²What if God , desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power , has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction ,

²³in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy , which he has prepared beforehand for glory —

²⁴even us whom he has called , not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles ?

²⁵As 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 .

²⁶And in the very 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 , only a remnant of them will be saved ,

²⁸for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay .

²⁹And as Isaiah predicted ,, If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring , we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah .

³⁰What shall we say , then ? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is , a righteousness that is by faith ;

³¹but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law .

³²Why ? Because they did not pursue it by faith , but as if it were based on works . They have stumbled over the stumbling stone ,

³³as it is written , Behold , I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling , and a rock of offense ; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame .