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¹ I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me testimony in the Holy Spirit,² That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.³ For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: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;⁵ Whose [are] the fathers, and from whom according to the flesh, Christ [came], who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

⁶ Not as though the word of God hath taken no effect. For they [are] not all Israel, who are [descendants] from Israel?⁷ Neither because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.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 For this [is] the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah 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 calleth)¹² It was said to 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] unrighteousness with God? By no means.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 willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.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.¹⁸ Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth.¹⁹ Thou wilt say then to me, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will?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?²¹ Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor?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:²³ And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory,²⁴ Even us whom he hath 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 to them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called, The children of the living God.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:²⁸ For he will finish the work, and cut [it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.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.

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:³¹ But Israel, who followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.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;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.