Romans 9

1I am telling the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit—

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

3For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers and sisters, my own people according to the flesh.

4They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.

5To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

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

7and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. Rather, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be named.”

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

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

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

11For before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—so that God’s purpose in election might stand, not by works but by him who calls—

12she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

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

14What then are we to say? Is there injustice with God? By no means!

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 wants it or the one who runs for it, but on God, who shows mercy.

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

18So then, he has mercy on whomever he wants, and he hardens whomever he wants.

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

20But who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”

21Does the potter not have the right over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

22What if God, wanting to show his wrath and to make his power known, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,

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

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

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

26And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called children of the living God.”

27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Even if the number of the people of Israel is like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved.

28For the Lord will carry out his word on the earth, fully and swiftly.”

29And as Isaiah said beforehand, “If the Lord of Armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”

30What then are we to say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness, the righteousness that is by faith;

31but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law.

32Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

33as it is written, “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that causes stumbling and a rock that makes people fall, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”