1   I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, 2   that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3   For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my physical relatives according to the flesh, 4   who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises; 5   of whom are the patriarchs, and from whom is the Christ, as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. 6   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   Neither, because they are Abraham's descendants, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your descendants be called." 8   That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants. 9   For this is what the promise said, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son." 10   And not only that, but Rebekah also had conceived by one, our father Isaac. 11   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   it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger." 13   Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 14   What should we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Absolutely not. 15   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   So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. 17   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 proclaimed in all the earth." 18   So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. 19   You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?" 20   But who indeed are you, a human being, to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" 21   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   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   and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, 24   us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the non-Jews? 25   As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them which were not my people 'my people,' and her who was not loved, 'loved.'" 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.'" 27   And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be kept safe. 28   For he will fulfill the word and decisively in righteousness; because the Lord will carry out the word decisively on the earth." 29   As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah." 30   What should we say then? That the non-Jews, who did not follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; 31   but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32   Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; 33   even as it is written, "Look, I am laying in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock to trip over; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame."

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