1. I say the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2. That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kindred according to the flesh:
4. Who are Israelites; to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
5. Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
6. But it is not as though the word of God has had no effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
7. Neither, because they are the descendents of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall your descendents be called.
8. That is, Those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the offspring.
9. For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
10. And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
11. (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to selection might stand, not because of works, but because of him that calls;)
12. It was said to her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15. For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16. So then it is not from him that wills, nor from him that runs, but from God who shows mercy.
17. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18. Therefore he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens.
19. You will say then to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will?
20. No, but O man, who are you that replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why have you made me thus?
21. Has not the potter power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
22. What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
23. And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had prepared beforehand for glory,
24. Even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
25. As he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, who were not my people; and her beloved, who was not beloved.
26. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
27. Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
28. For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
29. And as Isaiah said before, Unless the Lord of hosts had left us descendents, we would have been like Sodom, and been made like Gomorrah.
30. What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
31. But Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.
32. Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as if by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone;
33. As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense: and whoever believes in him shall not be ashamed.