9:1 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,

9:2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

9:3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers` sake, my relatives according to the flesh,

9:4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

9:5 whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

9:6 But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.

9:7 Neither, because they are Abraham`s seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called."

9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.

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

9:10 Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.

9:11 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

9:12 it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger."

9:13 Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

9:14 What will we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not!

9:15 For he said 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 is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

9:17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth."

9:18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

9:19 You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?"

9:20 But no, man, who are you who replies against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"

9:21 Or hasn`t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?

9:22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,

9:23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,

9:24 us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

9:25 As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them `my people,` which were not my people; And her `beloved,` who was not beloved."

9:26 It will be that in the place where it was said to them, `You are not my people,` There will they be called `sons of the living God.`"

9:27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, It is the remnant who will be saved;

9:28 For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

9:29 As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, We would have become like Sodom, And would have been made like Gomorrah."

9:30 What will we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn`t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;

9:31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn`t arrive at the law of righteousness.

9:32 Why? Because they didn`t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;