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9:1 I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, 9:2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, [separated] from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 9:4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the [temple] service and the promises, 9:5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. 9:6 But [it is] not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are [descended] from Israel; 9:7 neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named." 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. 9:9 For this is a word of promise: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." 9:10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived [twins] by one man, our father Isaac; 9:11 for though [the twins] were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to [His] choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, 9:12 it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger." 9:13 Just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 9:14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 9:15 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 9:16 So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth." 9:18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" 9:20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? 9:21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use? 9:22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 9:23 And [He did so] in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 9:24 [even] us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. 9:25 As He says also in Hosea, "I will call those who were not My people, 'My people,' And her who was not beloved, 'beloved.'" 9:26 "And 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 the living God." 9:27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; 9:28 for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly." 9:29 And just as Isaiah foretold, "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, We would have become as Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah." 9:30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 9:31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at [that] law. 9:32 Why? Because [they did] not [pursue it] by faith, but as though [it were] by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 9:33 just as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed."