¹I tell the truth in Christ . I am not lying , my conscience testifying 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 from Christ for my brothers’ sake , my relatives according to the flesh

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

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

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

⁷Neither , because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children . But , “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac .”[#Genesis 21:12]

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

⁹For this is a word of promise : “At the appointed time I will come , and Sarah will have a son .”[#Genesis 18:10,14]

¹⁰Not only so , but Rebekah also conceived by one , by our father Isaac .

¹¹For 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 ,[#9:11 NU puts the phrase “not of works, but of him who calls” at the beginning of verse 12 instead of the end of verse 11.]

¹²it was said to her , “The elder will serve the younger .”[#Genesis 25:23]

¹³Even as it is written , “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated .”[#Malachi 1:2-3]

¹⁴What shall we say then ? Is there unrighteousness with God ? May it never be !

¹⁵For he said to Moses , “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy , and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion .”[#Exodus 33:19]

¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills , nor of him who runs , but of God who has mercy .

¹⁷For 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 proclaimed in all the earth .”[#Exodus 9:16]

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

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

²⁰But indeed , O man , who are you to reply against God ? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it , “Why did you make me like this ?”[#Isaiah 29:16; 45:9]

²¹Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay , from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honour , and another for dishonour?

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

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

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

²⁵As he says also in Hosea ,

“I will call them ‘my people ,’ which were not my people ;

and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”

²⁶“It will be that in the place where it was said to them , ‘You are not my people ,’

there they will be called ‘children of the living God .’”

²⁷Isaiah 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 ;

²⁸for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,

because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth .”

²⁹As Isaiah has said before ,

“Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed ,

we would have become like Sodom ,

and would have been made like Gomorrah .”

³⁰What shall we say then ? That the Gentiles , who didn’t follow after righteousness , attained to righteousness , even the righteousness which is of faith ;

³¹but Israel , following after a law of righteousness , didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness .

³²Why ? Because they didn’t seek it by faith , but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone ,

³³even as it is written ,

“Behold , I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offence ;

and no one who believes in him will be disappointed .”