Chapter 9

¹I say [the] truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in [the] Holy Spirit, ²that I have great grief and uninterrupted pain in my heart, ³for I have wished, I myself, to be a curse from the Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to flesh; ⁴who are Israelites; whose [is] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the law-giving, and the service, and the promises; ⁵whose [are] the fathers; and of whom, as according to flesh, [is] the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. ⁶Not however as though the word of God had failed; for not all [are] Israel which [are] of Israel; ⁷nor because they are seed of Abraham [are] all children: but, In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee. ⁸That is, [they that are] the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned as seed. ⁹For this word [is] of promise, According to this time I will come, and there shall be a son to Sarah. ¹⁰And not only [that], but Rebecca having conceived by one, Isaac our father, ¹¹[the children] indeed being not yet born, or having done anything good or worthless (that the purpose of God according to election might abide, not of works, but of him that calls), ¹²it was said to her, The greater shall serve the less: ¹³according as it is written, I have loved Jacob, and I have hated Esau. ¹⁴What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? Far be the thought. ¹⁵For he says to Moses, I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy, and I will feel compassion for whom I will feel compassion. ¹⁶So then [it is] not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shews mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very thing I have raised thee up from amongst [men], that I might thus shew in thee my power, and so that my name should be declared in all the earth. ¹⁸So then, to whom he will he shews mercy, and whom he will he hardens. ¹⁹Thou wilt say to me then, Why does he yet find fault? for who resists his purpose? ²⁰Aye, but thou, O man, who art thou that answerest again to God? Shall the thing formed say to him that has formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? ²¹Or has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour? ²²And if God, minded to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; ²³and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory, ²⁴us, whom he has also called, not only from amongst [the] Jews, but also from amongst [the] nations? ²⁵As he says also in Hosea, I will call not-my-people My people; and the-not-beloved Beloved. ²⁶And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, Ye [are] not my people, there shall they be called Sons of [the] living God. ²⁷But Esaias cries concerning Israel, Should the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved: ²⁸for [he] is bringing the matter to an end, and [cutting [it] short in righteousness; because] a cutting short of the matter will [the] Lord accomplish upon the earth. ²⁹And according as Esaias said before, Unless [the] Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and made like even as Gomorrha. ³⁰What then shall we say? That [they of the] nations, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, but [the] righteousness that is on the principle of faith. ³¹But Israel, pursuing after a law of righteousness, has not attained to [that] law. ³²Wherefore? Because [it was] not on the principle of faith, but as of works. They have stumbled at the stumblingstone, ³³according as it is written, Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling and rock of offence: and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed.