¹ I say the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

² that I have great sorrow and continual pain in my heart.

³ For I could wish that myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren, those who are my kinsmen according to the flesh,

⁴ who are Israelites, to whom [pertains] the adoption [as sons] and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service [of God] and the promises,

⁵ whose [are] the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh is the Christ, who is God over all things, blessed for all the ages. Amen.

⁶ Not as though the word of God has been deficient. For not all the descendants of Israel are Israelites;

⁷ neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are all sons, but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

⁸ That is, Those who [are] sons of the flesh, these [are] not the sons of God; but those who [are] sons of the promise [are] counted in the generation.

⁹ For the word of the promise [is] this, At this time I will come, and Sara shall have a son.

¹⁰ And not only [this], but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac

¹¹ (for [the children] being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand: not of works, but of him that calls),

¹² it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

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

¹⁴ What shall we say then? [Is there] injustice in God? No, in no wise.

¹⁵ For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

¹⁶ So then [it is] not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that has mercy.

¹⁷ For the scripture saith of Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

¹⁸ Therefore he has mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and he hardens whom he will.

¹⁹ Thou wilt say then unto me, Why does he become angry? For who shall resist his will?

²⁰ Rather, O man, who art thou to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus?

²¹ Has not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?

²² [What] if God, desiring to show [his] wrath and to make his power known, endured with much meekness the vessels of wrath, prepared for death,

²³ and making known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory?

²⁴ Even us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles!

²⁵ As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.

²⁶ And it shall come to pass [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people, there shall they be called sons of the living God.

²⁷ Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant shall be saved;

²⁸ when the consumption comes to an end, righteousness shall overflow, because a short sentence will the Lord execute upon the earth.

²⁹ And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of the hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrha.

³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, that is to say, the righteousness which is by faith,

³¹ and Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

³² Why? Because [they followed it] not by faith but, as it were, by the works (of the law); therefore, they stumbled on the stumblingstone;

³³ as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock [that will cause some] to fall, and whosoever believes in him shall not be ashamed.: