Romans 9:7–33

⁷nor are they all children ^abecause they are Abraham’s ¹descendants, but: “^2bthrough Isaac your descendants will be named.”

⁸That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are ^achildren of God, but the ^bchildren of the promise are regarded as ¹descendants.

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 ^aGod’s purpose according to His choice would ¹stand, not ²because of works but because of Him who calls,

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

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

^14aWhat shall we say then? ^bThere is no injustice with God, is there? ^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 man who wills or the man who ^aruns, but on ^bGod who has mercy.

¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “^aFor this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and 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? ^cThe 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 ¹for honorable use and another ²for common use?

²²¹What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much ^apatience vessels of wrath ^bprepared for destruction?

²³And He did so to 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.”

²⁷Isaiah 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 earth, ¹thoroughly and ²quickly.”

²⁹And just as Isaiah foretold,

“^aUnless ^bthe Lord of ¹Sabaoth had left to us a ²posterity,

^cWe would have become like Sodom, and would have ³resembled Gomorrah.”

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

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

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

³³just as it is written,

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

^cAnd he who believes in Him ^dwill not be ¹disappointed.”