Chapter 9

¹And not only she. But when Rebecca also had conceived at once, of Isaac our father. ¹¹For when the children were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil (that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand,) ¹²Not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger. ¹³As it is written: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. ¹⁴What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? God forbid. ¹⁵For he saith to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy. ¹⁶So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture saith to Pharao: To this purpose have I raised thee, that I may shew my power in thee, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth. ¹⁸Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will; and whom he will, he hardeneth. ¹⁹Thou wilt say therefore to me: Why doth he then find fault? for who resisteth his will? ²⁰O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: Why hast thou made me thus? ²¹Or hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump, to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? ²²What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, ²³That he might shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he hath prepared unto glory? ²⁴Even us, whom also he hath called, nor only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles. ²⁵As in Osee he saith: I will call that which was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved; and her that had not obtained mercy, one that hath obtained mercy. ²⁶And it shall be, in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there they shall be called the sons of the living God. ²⁷And Isaias crieth out concerning Israel: If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. ²⁸For he shall finish his word, and cut it short in justice; because a short word shall the Lord make upon the earth. ²⁹And as Isaias foretold: Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been made as Sodom, and we had been like unto Gomorrha. ³⁰What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who followed not after justice, have attained to justice, even the justice that is of faith. ³¹But Israel, by following after the law of justice, is not come unto the law of justice. ³²Why so? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were of works. For they stumbled at the stumblingstone. ³³As it is written: Behold I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and a rock of scandal; and whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded.