Romans 9:7–33

^7onor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, ^p“In Isaac your seed shall be called.” ⁸That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but ^qthe children of the promise are counted as the seed. ⁹For this is the word of promise: ^r“At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

¹⁰And not only this, but when ^sRebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac ¹¹(for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of ^tHim who calls), ¹²it was said to her, ^u“The older shall serve the younger.” ¹³As it is written, ^v“Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

Israel’s Rejection and God’s Justice

¹⁴What shall we say then? ^wIs there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! ¹⁵For He says to Moses, ^x“I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” ¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For ^ythe Scripture says to the Pharaoh, ^z“For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.” ¹⁸Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He ^ahardens.

¹⁹You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For ^bwho has resisted His will?” ²⁰But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? ^cWill the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” ²¹Does not the ^dpotter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make ^eone vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

²²What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering ^fthe vessels of wrath ^gprepared for destruction, ²³and that He might make known ^hthe riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had ⁱprepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴even us whom He ^jcalled, ^knot of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

²⁵As He says also in Hosea:

^l“I will call them My people, who were not My people,

And her beloved, who was not beloved.”

²⁶“And ^mit shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them,

‘You are not My people,’

There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

²⁷Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:

ⁿ“Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea,

^oThe remnant will be saved.

²⁸For ²He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,

^pBecause the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”

²⁹And as Isaiah said before:

^q“Unless the Lord of ³Sabaoth had left us a seed,

^rWe would have become like Sodom,

And we would have been made like Gomorrah.”

Present Condition of Israel

³⁰What shall we say then? ^sThat Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, ^teven the righteousness of faith; ³¹but Israel, ^upursuing the law of righteousness, ^vhas not attained to the law ⁴of righteousness. ³²Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, ⁵by the works of the law. For ^wthey stumbled at that stumbling stone. ³³As it is written:

^x“Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense,

And ^ywhoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”