1I tell [the] truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience also bearing me witness in [the] Holy Spirit, 2that I have great heaviness and continual pain in my heart. 3For I myself was wishing to be accursed from Christ for my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4who are Israelites; to whom [belong] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service [of God], and the promises; 5whose [are] the fathers, and of whom [is] the Christ according to flesh, He being God over all, blessed forever. Amen. 6Not however that the word of God has failed, for not all those of Israel [are] Israel; 7nor because they are the seed of Abraham [are they] all children. But, In Isaac shall your Seed be called. 8That is, not the children of the flesh [are] children of God; but the children of the promise [are] counted for a seed. 9For this [is] the word of promise: At this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son. 10And not only [this], but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, by our father Isaac 11(for [the children] had not yet been born, neither had done any good or evil; but that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who called,) 12it was said to her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14What shall we say then? [Is there] not unrighteousness with God? Let it not be! 15For He said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16So then [it is] not of the [one] willing, nor of the [one] running, but of God, the [One] showing mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose I have raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth. 18Therefore He has mercy on whom He will [have mercy], and whom He will, He hardens. 19You will then say to me, Why does He yet find fault? For who has resisted His will? 20No, but, O man, who are you who replies against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him who formed [it], Why have you made me this way? 21Does not the potter have power over the clay, from 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; 23and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He had before prepared to glory; 24whom He also called, not only us, of Jews, but also of the nations? 25As He also says in Hosea, I will call those not My people, My people; and those not beloved, Beloved. 26And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them. You [are] not My people; there they shall be called sons of the living God. 27Isaiah also cries concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel is as the sands of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. 28For [He is] bringing [the] matter to an end, and cutting short in righteousness, because [the] Lord will make a short work on the earth. 29And as Isaiah said before, Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and would have been like Gomorrah. 30What shall we say then? That the nations, who did not follow after righteousness have taken on righteousness, but a righteousness of faith. 31But Israel, who followed after a law of righteousness did not arrive at a law of righteousness. 32Why? Because [it was] not of faith, but as it were by the works of the Law. For they stumbled at that Stumbling-stone; 33as it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a Stumbling-stone and a Rock-of-offense, and everyone believing on Him shall not be put to shame.