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9:1  I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying, as my conscience bears witness for me through the Holy Spirit
9:2  that I have great sorrow and unending anguish in my heart.
9:3  I would even be willing to be accursed, cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren who are my kinsmen according to the flesh.
9:4  They are Israelites who have the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the Law, the worship, and the promises.
9:5  To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, came the Christ, God forever, who is over all. Amen.
9:6  It is not as though the word of God has proved false. For not all who were Israelites truly belong to Israel,
9:7  and not all of Abraham’s children are his true descendants. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that descendants will bear your name.”
9:8  In other words, it is not through physical descent that people are regarded as children of God. Rather, the children of the promise are those who are counted as descendants.
9:9  For this is how the promise was worded: “About this time next year I shall return, and Sarah will have a son.”
9:10  And not only that, but Rebekah became pregnant by one man, her husband Isaac.
9:11  Yet even before her children had been born or done anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might prevail,
9:12  dependent not on human works but on his call, she was told, “The older shall serve the younger.”
9:13  As it is written, “I loved Jacob, but Esau I hated.”
9:14  What then are we to say to that? Has God been unjust? Of course not!
9:15  For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have pity on whomever I will have pity.”
9:16  Therefore, it does not depend on anyone’s will or exertion but on God’s mercy.
9:17  For Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up so that I may display my power in you and that my name may be proclaimed throughout the earth.”
9:18  Consequently, he shows mercy to whomever he wills, and he hardens the hearts of whomever he wills.
9:19  In response, you will say to me, “Why then does he still find fault? Who can resist his will?”
9:20  But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Can something that is made say to its maker, “Why did you make me like this?”
9:21  Surely, the potter can mold the clay as he wishes. Does he not have the right to make out of the same lump of clay one vessel for a noble purpose and another for ordinary use?
9:22  What if God, although wishing to show his wrath and to make known his power, nevertheless with great patience endured the objects of his wrath destined for destruction?
9:23  He did so in order to make known the riches of his glory to the recipients of his mercy whom he prepared long ago for glory.
9:24  We are the ones whom he has called not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.
9:25  As indeed he says in Hosea, “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’ and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’
9:26  And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called children of the living God.”
9:27  And Isaiah cries out in regard to Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.
9:28  For the sentence of the Lord on the earth will be executed quickly and with finality.”
9:29  Isaiah had foretold previously: “If the Lord of hosts had not left us any descendants, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.”
9:30  What then shall we say? That the Gentiles who did not strive for righteousness have achieved it, that is, righteousness based on faith,
9:31  but that Israel, who did strive for righteousness based on the Law, did not succeed in attaining it?
9:32  Why did this happen? Because they did not pursue it by faith but on the basis of works. They tripped over the stone that causes one to stumble,
9:33  as it is written: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make people stumble and a rock that will cause them to fall. But the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”