Romans 9

CHAPTER 9

God’s Chosen People, Israel

^1aI 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 ^aI could ¹wish that I myself were ^baccursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen ^caccording to the flesh,

⁴who are ^aIsraelites, to whom belongs ^bthe adoption as sons, and ^cthe glory and ^dthe covenants and ^ethe giving of the Law and ^fthe temple service and ^gthe promises,

⁵whose are ^athe fathers, and ^bfrom whom is the ¹Christ according to the flesh, ^cwho is ^dGod over all, ^eblessed ²forever. Amen.

⁶But it is not as though ^athe word of God has failed. ^bFor they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel;

⁷nor are they all children ^abecause they are Abraham’s seed, but: “^1bthrough Isaac your seed will be named.”

⁸That is, the children of the flesh are not the ^achildren of God, but the ^bchildren of the promise are considered as seed.

⁹For this is the word of promise: “^aAt this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

^10aAnd not only this, but there was ^bRebekah 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 the ^apurpose of God according to His choice would ¹stand, not ²because of works but ³because of Him who calls,

¹²it was said to her, “^aThe older shall serve the younger.”

¹³Just as it is written, “^aJacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

^14aWhat shall we say then? ^bIs there any unrighteousness with God? ^cMay it never be!

¹⁵For He says to Moses, “^aI 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 one who wills or the one who ^aruns, but on ^bGod who has mercy.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “^aFor this very purpose I raised you up, in order to demonstrate My power in you, and in order that My name might be proclaimed ¹throughout the whole earth.”

¹⁸So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He ^ahardens whom He desires.

^19aYou will say to me then, “^bWhy does He still find fault? For ^cwho resists His will?”

²⁰On the contrary, who are you, ^aO man, who ^banswers back to God? ^cWill the thing molded say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this”?

²¹Or does not the potter have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel ¹for honorable use and another ²for dishonorable use?

²²And ¹what if God, wanting to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much ^apatience vessels of wrath ^bhaving been prepared for destruction,

²³and in order that He might make known ^athe riches of His glory upon ^bvessels of mercy, which He ^cprepared beforehand for glory—

²⁴even us, whom He also ^acalled, ^bnot from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles?

²⁵As He says also in Hosea,

“^aI will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’

And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

²⁶“^aAnd 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 ^bthe living God.”

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “^aThough the number of the sons of Israel be ^blike the sand of the sea, it is ^cthe remnant that will be saved;

^28afor the Lord will execute His word on the land, ¹thoroughly and ²quickly.”

²⁹And just as Isaiah foretold,

“^aUnless ^bthe Lord of ¹Sabaoth had left to us a seed,

^cWe would have become like Sodom, and would have ²resembled Gomorrah.”

^30aWhat shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness, even ^bthe righteousness which is ¹by faith;

³¹but Israel, ^apursuing a law of righteousness, did not ^battain that law.

³²Why? Because they did not pursue it ¹by faith, but as though it were ²by works. They stumbled over ^athe stumbling stone,

³³just as it is written,

“^aBehold, I am laying in Zion ^ba stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,

^cAnd the one who believes upon Him ^dwill not be put to shame.”