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¹ I tell the truth in Messiah. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Ruach HaKodesh, ² that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. ³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Messiah for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh, ⁴ who are Yisra'elites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; ⁵ whose are the fathers, and of whom is Messiah as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amein.

⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Yisra'el, that are of Yisra'el. ⁷ Neither, because they are Avraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Yitzchak will your seed be called." 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." ¹⁰ Not only so, but Rivka also conceived by one, by our father Yitzchak. 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." ¹³ Even as it is written, "Ya`akov I loved, but Esav I hated."

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! ¹⁵ For he said to Moshe, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 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 Par`oh, "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 published abroad in all the eretz." 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 no, man, who are you who replies against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" 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 Yehudim only, but also from the Goyim?

²⁵ As he says also in Hoshea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; And her 'beloved,' who was not beloved." ²⁶ "It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' There they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" ²⁷ Yesha`yahu cries concerning Yisra'el, "If the number of the children of Yisra'el are as the sand of the sea, It is the remnant who will be saved; <sup>28</sup> For He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, Because the LORD will make a short work upon the eretz." <sup>29</sup> As Yesha`yahu has said before, "Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, We would have become like Sedom, And would have been made like `Amorah."

³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Goyim, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; ³¹ but Yisra'el, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness. ³² Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; ³³ even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Tziyon a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; And no one who believes in him will be put to shame."