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 pain in my heart.

³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh,

⁴ who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

⁵ of whom are the fathers, and from whom is 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 seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called."¹

1. Genesis 21:12

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 a seed.

⁹ For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son."¹

1. Genesis 18:10,14

¹⁰ Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by 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."¹

1. Genesis 25:23

¹³ Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."¹

1. Malachi 1:2-3

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!

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."¹

1. Exodus 33:19

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."¹

1. Exodus 9:16

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 indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"¹

1. Isaiah 29:16; 45:9

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 Gentiles?

²⁵ As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved."¹

1. Hosea 2:23. P Vg read "mercy/pity" instead of "beloved/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.'"¹

1. Hosea 1:10

²⁷ Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "If the number of the sons of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;

²⁸ for the Lord will fulfill his word completely and without delay¹ upon the earth."²

1. NU P. M TR add "in righteousness"
2. Isaiah 10:22-23

²⁹ As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of hosts¹ had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah."²

1. Greek: Sabaoth, for Hebrew: Tzevaot/Tsvaot
2. Isaiah 1:9

³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, 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 law¹.

1. M TR add "of righteousness"

³² Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by works¹. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;

1. NU Vg. M TR add "of the law"

³³ even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock that will make them fall; and no one who believes in him will be put to shame."¹

1. Isaiah 8:14; 28:16