9:1  I tell the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,

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

9:3  For I could wish that I myself received a curse, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

9:4  who have the lineage of Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises,

9:5   whose family produce the fathers, and from whom comes the Christ according to the flesh, who rules over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

9:6  But it does not seem as though the word of God has failed For they do not constitute all Israel who descend from Israel;

9:7  nor can they all claim family membership because they descend from Abraham, but: " THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL HAVE DESIGNATION."

9:8  Namely, it does not depend on fleshly lineage who can claim the title children of God, but the children of the promise can rightfully claim membership in the family.

9:9  For this constitutes the word of promise: " AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON."

9:10   And not only this, but Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;

9:11  for though the twins had not yet become born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls,

9:12   God said to her, " THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER."

9:13  Just as the scriptures read, " JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED."

9:14   What shall we say then? There exists no injustice with God, does it? May it never happen!

9:15  For He says 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 does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

9:17  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, " FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT PEOPLE MIGHT PROCLAIM MY NAME THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH."

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

9:19   You will say to me then, " Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"

9:20  On the contrary, who do you presume, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?

9:21  Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

9:22  What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

9:23   And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,

9:24   even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.

9:25   As He says also in Hosea, " I WILL CALL THOSE WHO I DID NOT CALL MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO I HAD NOT LOVED, 'BELOVED.'"

9:26  " AND IT SHALL HAPPEN THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE THE SCRIPTURES SAID TO THEM, 'I DO NOT CALL YOU MY PEOPLE,'

9:27  Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, " THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL AUGMENT LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, ONLY THE REMNANT WILL RECEIVE SALVATION;

9:28   FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY."

9:29   And just as Isaiah foretold," UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH."

9:30  What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which comes by faith;

9:31  but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.

9:32  Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it came by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

9:33   just as the scriptures read," BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT SUFFER DISAPPOINTMENT."