Romans 9

¹I speak [the] truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in [the] Holy Spirit.

²I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³For I could wish that I myself were cursed [and] cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

⁴[the people of] Israel. [Theirs is] the adoption as sons; [theirs] the divine glory and the covenants; [theirs] the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.

⁵[Theirs are] the patriarchs, and from them [ proceeds ] [the] human [descent] of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen.

⁶[It is] not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who [are] descended from Israel [are] Israel.

⁷Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants [are] they all [his] children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.”

⁸So it is not the children of the flesh [who are] God’s children, but [it is] the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.

⁹For this [is] what [the] promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

¹⁰Not only that, but Rebecca’s [children] were conceived by one [man], our father Isaac.

¹¹Yet before [the twins] were born [or] had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand,

¹²not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

¹³So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴What then shall we say? [Is] God unjust? Certainly not!

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 does] not [depend] on man’s desire [or] effort, but on God’s mercy.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very [purpose], that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

¹⁸Therefore [God] has mercy on whom He wants [to have mercy ], and He hardens whom He wants [ to harden ].

¹⁹One of you will say to me, “Then why does [God] still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? [Shall] what is formed say to Him who formed [it], “Why did You make me like this?”

²¹{Does} not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and [another] for common use?

²²What if God, intending to show [His] wrath and make His power {known}, bore with great patience [the] vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction?

²³[What if He did this] to make the riches of His glory {known} to [the] vessels of [His] mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory —

²⁴including us, whom He has called not only from [the] Jews, but also from [the] Gentiles?

²⁵As He says in Hosea: “I will call [them] ‘ My People ’ who [are] not My people, and [I will call her] ‘ [My] Beloved ’ who [is] not [My] beloved,”

²⁶and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them,‘ You [are] not My people,’ they will be called ‘ sons of [the] living God.’”

²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, [only] the remnant will be saved.

²⁸For [the] Lord will carry out [His] sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.”

²⁹[It is] just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless [the] Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

³⁰What then will we say? That [the] Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained [it], a righteousness that [is] by faith;

³¹but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained [it].

³²Why [not]? Because [their pursuit was] not by faith, but as if [it were] by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

³³as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the [one who] believes in Him will never be put to shame.”