1I am telling you the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my own conscience in the Holy Spirit bears witness with me 2That it is a great grief to me and an unceasing sorrow in my heart, 3Causing me even to wish myself to be accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh; 4Who are Israelites, to whom is the sonship and the glory, and the covenants and the giving of the law, and the service and the promises; 5Who are of the fathers, and from whom came the Christ according to the flesh, Who is over all--God blessed into the ages. Amen.

6However, this does not mean that the word of God has failed because not all of those who descend from Israel are Israel, 7Nor because they are Abraham's seed does it mean that they are all children of the promise. But, "In Isaac shall your seed be called." 8That is, those who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God; rather, the children of the promise are reckoned as the seed 9Because this is the word of promise: "According to this set time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." 10And not only that, but Rebecca also having conceived by one, Isaac our father, 11But before the children had been born, or had done anything good or evil (in order that the purpose of God according to His own selection might stand-- not of works, but of Him Who calls), 12It was said to her, "The elder shall serve the younger." 13Accordingly, it is written, "Jacob I loved, and Esau I hated."

14What then shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? MAY IT NEVER BE! 15For He said to Moses, "I will show mercy to whomever I show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion." 16So then, it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs; rather, it is of God, Who shows mercy. 17For the Scripture said to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up in order that I might show in you My power, so that My name may be declared in all the earth." 18So then, He shows mercy to whom He will, and He hardens whom He will.

19Will you then reply to me, "Why does He yet find fault? For who has opposed His purpose?" 20Yes, indeed, O man, who are you to answer against God? Shall the thing that is formed say to the one who formed it, "Why did you make me this way?" 21Or doesn't the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump of clay one vessel unto honor, and another vessel unto dishonor? 22And who dares to question His purpose if God, willing to show His wrath and to make known His power, chose in much long-suffering to put up with the vessels of wrath which were created for destruction; 23In order that He might make known the riches of His glory unto the vessels of mercy, which He prepared before for glory, 24Those of us whom He also called, not from among the Jews only, but also from among the Gentiles?

25Accordingly, He also said in Hosea, "I will call those who are not My people, 'My people,' and those who were not beloved, 'Beloved. '

26And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' there they shall be called the sons of the living God."

27But Isaiah cried out concerning Israel, "Although the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. 28For He is accomplishing and limiting the matter in righteousness; because the Lord will limit the matter He is doing upon the earth."

29Accordingly, Isaiah also said before, "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah."

30What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, even the righteousness that is by faith. 31But Israel, although they followed after a law of righteousness, did not attain to a law of righteousness. 32Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but by works of law: for they stumbled at the Stone of stumbling,

33Exactly as it is written: "Behold, I place in Sion a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense, but everyone who believes in Him shall not be ashamed."