^{1 Ref} I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,

^{2 Ref} that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

^{3 Ref} For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh,

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

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

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

^{7 Ref} Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called."

^{8 Ref} 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 Ref} For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son."

^{10 Ref} Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.

^{11 Ref} 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,

^{12 Ref} it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger."

^{13 Ref} Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

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

^{15 Ref} For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

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

^{17 Ref} 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."

^{18 Ref} So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

^{19 Ref} You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?"

^{20 Ref} But 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?"

^{21 Ref} 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?

^{22 Ref} What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,

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

^{24 Ref} us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

^{25 Ref} As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; And her 'beloved,' who was not beloved."

^{26 Ref} "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.'"

^{27 Ref} 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;

^{28 Ref} For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

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

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

^{31 Ref} but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness.

^{32 Ref} Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;

^{33 Ref} even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; And no one who believes in him will be disappointed."