1 a2 Cor. 11:10; 1 Tim. 2:7; [2 Cor. 12:19; Gal. 1:20]; See ch. 1:9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 Forb[Ex. 32:32] I could wish that I myself werec1 Cor. 12:3; 16:22; Gal. 1:8, 9 accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmend[ch. 11:14] according to the flesh. 4 They aree[ver. 6; ch. 2:28, 29; Gal. 6:16] Israelites, and to them belongf[Ex. 4:22]; See ch. 8:15 the adoption,gEx. 40:34; 1 Sam. 4:21; 1 Kgs. 8:11 the glory,hGen. 17:2; Deut. 29:14; Gal. 4:24; Eph. 2:12 the covenants,iDeut. 4:14; [Ps. 147:19] the giving of the law,jHeb. 9:1 (Gk.); [ch. 12:1] the worship, andk[Eph. 2:12]; See John 4:22; Acts 13:32 the promises. 5 To them belonglch. 11:28 the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christm[Eph. 4:6; Col. 1:16-19] who is God over all,nch. 1:25; John 1:1; 2 Cor. 11:31; Heb. 1:8 blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abrahamo[Gal. 4:23]; See John 8:33 because they are his offspring, butpHeb. 11:18; Cited from Gen. 21:12; [Gal. 3:29] “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. ” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, butqGal. 4:23, 28 the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said:rCited from Gen. 18:10, 14; [Gen. 17:21] “About this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son. ” 10 And not only so, butsGen. 25:21 also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because oft[ch. 4:17]; See ch. 8:28 his call— 12 she was told,uCited from Gen. 25:23 “The older will serve the younger. ” 13 As it is written,vCited from Mal. 1:2, 3 “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. ”
14 What shall we say then?wDeut. 32:4; 2 Chr. 19:7; Job 8:3; 34:10; Ps. 92:15 Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses,xCited from Ex. 33:19 “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. ” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh,yCited from Ex. 9:16 “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. ” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? Forz2 Chr. 20:6; Job 9:12; Dan. 4:35 who can resist his will? ”
20 But who are you, O man,aJob 33:13 to answer back to God?bIsa. 29:16; 45:9 Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this? ”
21 cIsa. 64:8; Jer. 18:6 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lumpd2 Tim. 2:20 one vessel for honored use and another for dishonorable use?
22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patiencee[ver. 21, 23; Acts 9:15] vessels of wrathf[Prov. 16:4; 1 Pet. 2:8] prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make knowngEph. 3:16; See ch. 2:4 the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which heh[ch. 8:29] has prepared beforehand for glory—
24 even us whom heiSee ch. 8:28 has called,jSee ch. 3:29 not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?
25 As indeed he says in Hosea,
kCited from Hos. 2:23; [1 Pet. 2:10] “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people, ’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved. ’ ”
26 lCited from Hos. 1:10 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people, ’
there they will be calledmSee ch. 8:14; Matt. 16:16 ‘sons of the living God. ’ ”
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:nCited from Isa. 10:22, 23; [Hos. 1:10] “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea,och. 11:5 only a remnant of them will be saved,
28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay. ”
29 And as Isaiah predicted,
pCited from Isa. 1:9,qJames 5:4 “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
rDeut. 29:23; Isa. 13:19; Jer. 49:18; 50:40; Amos 4:11 we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah. ”
30 What shall we say, then?s[ch. 10:20] That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is,tch. 1:17; 3:21, 22; 10:6; Gal. 2:16; 3:24; Phil. 3:9; Heb. 11:7 a righteousness that is by faith;
31 but that Israelu[ch. 10:2, 3; 11:7] who pursued a law that would lead to righteousnessv[Gal. 5:4] did not succeed in reaching that law.
32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over thewSee 1 Pet. 2:8 stumbling stone,
33 as it is written,
x1 Pet. 2:6, 7; Cited from Isa. 28:16; [Ps. 118:22] “Behold, I am laying in ZionyIsa. 8:14 a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
zch. 10:11 and whoever believes in him will not beaIsa. 49:23; Joel 2:26, 27 put to shame. ”