New Living Translation

Holman Christian Standard Bible

1With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

1I speak the truth in Christ--I am not lying; my conscience is testifying to me with the Holy Spirit--

2My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief

2that I have intense sorrow and continual anguish in my heart.

3for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.

3For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood.

4They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.

4They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple service, and the promises.

5Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.

5The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Messiah, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.

6Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!

6But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.

7Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.

7Neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants. On the contrary, your offspring will be traced through Isaac.

8This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.

8That is, it is not the children by physical descent who are God's children, but the children of the promise are considered to be the offspring.

9For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”

9For this is the statement of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.

10This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.

10And not only that, but also Rebekah received a promise when she became pregnant by one man, our ancestor Isaac.

11But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;

11For though her sons had not been born yet or done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to election might stand--

12he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”

12not from works but from the One who calls--she was told: The older will serve the younger.

13In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”

13As it is written: I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.

14Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!

14What should we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!

15For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”

15For He tells Moses: I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

16So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

16So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy.

17For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”

17For the Scripture tells Pharaoh: I raised you up for this reason so that I may display My power in you and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.

18So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

18So then, He shows mercy to those He wants to, and He hardens those He wants to harden.

19Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

19You will say to me, therefore, "Why then does He still find fault? For who can resist His will?"

20No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”

20But who are you, a mere man, to talk back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"

21When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

21Or has the potter no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one piece of pottery for honor and another for dishonor?

22In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.

22And what if God, desiring to display His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience objects of wrath ready for destruction?

23He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.

23And what if He did this to make known the riches of His glory on objects of mercy that He prepared beforehand for glory--

24And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

24on us, the ones He also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

25Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.”

25As He also says in Hosea: I will call Not My People, My People, and she who is Unloved, Beloved.

26And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”

26And it will be in the place where they were told, you are not My people, there they will be called sons of the living God.

27And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.

27But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: Though the number of Israel's sons is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved;

28For the LORD will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”

28for the Lord will execute His sentence completely and decisively on the earth.

29And Isaiah said the same thing in another place: “If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.” Israel’s Unbelief

29And just as Isaiah predicted: If the Lord of Hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made like Gomorrah.

30What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.

30What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness--namely the righteousness that comes from faith.

31But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.

31But Israel, pursuing the law for righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law.

32Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

32Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.

33God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

33As it is written: Look! I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, yet the one who believes on Him will not be put to shame.

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.