Romans 9

Solicitude for Israel

11I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3For 2I could 3wish that I myself were 4accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen 5according to the flesh, 4who are 6Israelites, to whom belongs 7the adoption as sons, and 8the glory and 9the covenants and 10the giving of the Law and 11the temple service and 12the promises, 5whose are 13the fathers, and 14from whom is 15the Christ according to the flesh, 16who is over all, 17God 18blessed 19forever. Amen.

6But it is not as though 20the word of God has failed. 21For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7nor are they all children 22because they are Abraham’s 23descendants, but: “2425through Isaac your 26descendants will be named.” 8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are 27children of God, but the 28children of the promise are regarded as 29descendants. 9For this is the word of promise: “30At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” 1031And not only this, but there was 32Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that 33God’s purpose according to His choice would 34stand, not 35because of works but 36because of Him who calls, 12it was said to her, “37The older will serve the younger.” 13Just as it is written, “38Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

1439What shall we say then? 40There is no injustice with God, is there? 41May it never be! 15For He says to Moses, “42I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who 43runs, but on 44God who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “45For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed 46throughout the whole earth.” 18So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He 47hardens whom He desires.

1948You will say to me then, “49Why does He still find fault? For 50who resists His will?” 20On the contrary, who are you, 51O man, who 52answers back to God? 53The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel 54for honorable use and another 55for common use? 2256What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much 57patience vessels of wrath 58prepared for destruction? 23And He did so to make known 59the riches of His glory upon 60vessels of mercy, which He 61prepared beforehand for glory, 24even us, whom He also 62called, 63not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. 25As He says also in Hosea, “64I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”26“65And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of 66the living God.”

27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “67Though the number of the sons of Israel be 68like the sand of the sea, it is 69the remnant that will be saved; 2870for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, 71thoroughly and 72quickly.” 29And just as Isaiah foretold, “73Unless 74the Lord of 75Sabaoth had left to us a 76posterity, 77We would have become like Sodom, and would have 78resembled Gomorrah.”

3079What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even 80the righteousness which is 81by faith; 31but Israel, 82pursuing a law of righteousness, did not 83arrive at that law. 32Why? Because they did not pursue it 84by faith, but as though it were 85by works. They stumbled over 86the stumbling stone, 33just as it is written, “87Behold, I lay in Zion 88a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, 89And he who believes in Him 90will not be 91disappointed.”