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.
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