To the Romans
9 I am telling the truth+ in Christ; I am not lying,+ since my conscience bears witness with me in holy spirit, 2 that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart.+ 3 For I could wish that I myself were separated as the cursed one* from the Christ in behalf of my brothers,+ my relatives according to the flesh,+ 4 who, as such, are Israelites,+ to whom belong the adoption as sons+ and the glory+ and the covenants+ and the giving of the Law+ and the sacred service*+ and the promises;+ 5 to whom the forefathers+ belong and from whom the Christ [sprang] according to the flesh:+ God,+ who is over all,* [be] blessed forever. Amen.
6 However, it is not as though the word of God had failed.+ For not all who [spring] from Israel are really “Israel.”+ 7 Neither because they are Abraham’s seed are they all children,+ but: “What will be called ‘your seed’ will be through Isaac.”+ 8 That is, the children in the flesh+ are not really the children of God,+ but the children by the promise+ are counted as the seed. 9 For the word of promise was as follows: “At this time I will come and Sarah will have a son.”+ 10 Yet not that case alone, but also when Re·bekʹah conceived twins+ from the one [man], Isaac our forefather: 11 for when they had not yet been born nor had practiced anything good or vile,+ in order that the purpose of God respecting the choosing might continue dependent, not upon works, but upon the One who calls,+ 12 it was said to her: “The older will be the slave of the younger.”+ 13 Just as it is written: “I loved Jacob, but Eʹsau I hated.”+
14 What shall we say, then? Is there injustice with God?+ Never may that become so! 15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy upon whomever I do have mercy, and I will show compassion to whomever I do show compassion.”+ 16 So, then, it depends, not upon the one wishing nor upon the one running, but upon God,+ who has mercy.+ 17 For the Scripture says to Pharʹaoh: “For this very cause I have let you remain,* that in connection with you I may show my power, and that my name may be declared in all the earth.”+ 18 So, then, upon whom he wishes he has mercy,+ but whom he wishes he lets become obstinate.+
19 You will therefore say to me: “Why does he yet find fault? For who has withstood his express will?”+ 20 O man,+ who, then, really are you to be answering back to God?+ Shall the thing molded say to him that molded it, “Why did you make me this way?”+ 21 What? Does not the potter+ have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for an honorable use, another for a dishonorable use?+ 22 If, now, God, although having the will to demonstrate his wrath and to make his power known, tolerated with much long-suffering vessels of wrath made fit for destruction,+ 23 in order that he might make known the riches+ of his glory upon vessels+ of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,+ 24 namely, us, whom he called not only from among Jews but also from among nations,+ [what of it]? 25 It is as he says also in Ho·seʹa: “Those not my people+ I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved ‘beloved’;+ 26 and in the place where it was said to them, ‘YOU are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”+
27 Moreover, Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Although the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea,+ it is the remnant that will be saved.+ 28 For Jehovah* will make an accounting on the earth, concluding it and cutting it short.”*+ 29 Also, just as Isaiah had said aforetime: “Unless Jehovah* of armies+ had left a seed to us, we should have become just like Sodʹom, and we should have been made just like Go·morʹrah.”+
30 What shall we say, then? That people of the nations, although not pursuing righteousness, caught up with righteousness,+ the righteousness that results from faith;+ 31 but Israel, although pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to the law.+ 32 For what reason? Because he pursued it, not by faith, but as by works.+ They stumbled on the “stone of stumbling”;+ 33 as it is written: “Look! I am laying in Zion a stone+ of stumbling and a rock-mass of offense,+ but he that rests his faith on it* will not come to disappointment.”*+