Romans 9

1I am telling the truth in Messiah; I am not lying, as my conscience bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit,

2that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

3For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

4who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises,

5theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all those from Israel are Israel.

7Nor is it the case that because they are Abraham’s offspring, they are all children. Rather, “In Isaac your offspring will be called.”

8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

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

10And not only that, but Rebekah also had conceived by one man, our father Isaac.

11For before they had yet been born or had done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to election might remain,

12not from works but from the One who calls, it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”

13as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

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

15For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”

16So then, it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy.

17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up: that I might display my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

18So then, he shows mercy to whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.

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

20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

21Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

22But what if God, wanting to display his wrath and make known his power, endured with great patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

23and in order to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,

24even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles—

25as he also says in Hosea, “I will call those who were not my people, ‘my people,’ and her who was not loved, ‘loved.’”

26And 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.

27But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.”

28For the Lord will carry out his word on the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.

29And just as Isaiah said before, “If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”

30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, attained righteousness—but the righteousness that is from faith.

31But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law.

32Why? Because it was not from faith, but as if from works. They stumbled over the stone of stumbling,

33As it is written, “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”