1I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

2that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my 9:3 Or relativescountrymen according to the flesh,

4who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;

5of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.

6But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,

7nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “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 the children of the promise are counted as the seed.

9For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son.”

10And not only this, but when Rebecca 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 Him who calls),

12it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.”

13As it is written, “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!

15For He says to Moses, “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 the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “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 hardens.

19You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”

20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

21Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one 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 the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

23and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

24even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25As He says also in Hosea:

27Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel:

29And as Isaiah said before:

30What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;

31but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law 9:31 NU omits of righteousnessof righteousness.

32Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, 9:32 NU by works, omitting of the lawby the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone.

33As it is written: