9:1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me testimony in the Holy Spirit, 9:2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom [pertain] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service [of God], and the promises; 9:5 Whose [are] the fathers, and from whom according to the flesh, Christ [came], who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. 9:6 Not as though the word of God hath taken no effect. For they [are] not all Israel, who are [descendants] from Israel? 9:7 Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 9:8 That is, They who are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9:9 For this [is] the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. 9:10 And not only [this]; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac, 9:11 (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 calleth) 9:12 It was said to her, The elder shall serve the younger. 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 9:14 What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? By no means. 9:15 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. 9:16 So then, [it is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. 9:17 For the scripture saith to 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. 9:18 Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth. 9:19 Thou wilt say then to me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? 9:20 No, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus? 9:21 Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor? 9:22 [What] if God, willing to show [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 9:23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory, 9:24 Even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. 9:25 As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them My people, who were not my people; and her Beloved, who was not beloved. 9:26 And it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said to them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called, The children of the living God. 9:27 Isaiah also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 9:28 For he will finish the work, and cut [it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. 9:29 And as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and been made like Gomorrah. 9:30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles who followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith: 9:31 But Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 9:32 Why? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone; 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling-stone, and rock of offense: and whoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.