1I speak truth in Christ, I am not lying — my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit —
2that great grief is mine and unceasing anguish in my heart.
3For I could wish that I myself were accursed, cut off from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the worship and the promises,
5whose are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are truly Israel;
7nor because they are Abraham’s seed are they all children, but “In Isaac your seed shall 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 seed.
9For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”
10And not only that, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, Isaac our father —
11for though they were not yet born and had done nothing 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 greater shall serve the lesser,”
13just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? Certainly not!
15For to Moses he says, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will show compassion on whom I show compassion.”
16So then it does not depend on the one who wills, nor on the one who runs, but on God who has mercy.
17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, so that I might display my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18So then he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.
19You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?”
20O man, who on the contrary are you, the one who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded 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, willing to display his wrath and to make known his power, bore with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23and in order that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory —
24even us, whom he also called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles?
25As indeed he says in Hosea: “I will call the one who was not my people “my people,” and her who was not beloved “beloved”;
26and it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there they shall be called sons of the living God.”
27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved;
28for the Lord will carry out his word upon the earth, completing it and cutting it short.”
29And just as Isaiah foretold: “If the Lord of Hosts had not left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”
30What then shall we say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness — a righteousness that is from faith;
31But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law.
32Why? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if by works. They stumbled over the stone of stumbling,
33just as it is written: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
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