9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ--I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit-- 9:2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 9:4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 9:5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. 9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 9:7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named." 9:8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9:9 For this is what the promise said: "About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son." 9:10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 9:11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad--in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls-- 9:12 she was told, "The older will serve the younger." 9:13 As it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 9:14 What shall we say then Is there injustice on God's part By no means! 9:15 For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 9:16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 9:17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 9:18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. 9:19 You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault For who can resist his will" 9:20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this" 9:21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use 9:22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 9:23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory-- 9:24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles 9:25 As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'" 9:26 "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" 9:27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 9:28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay." 9:29 And as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have been like Sodom and become like Gomorrah." 9:30 What shall we say, then That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 9:31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 9:32 Why Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 9:33 as it is written, "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."