OrthJBC - Romans - 9

9:1  I speak haEmes in Moshiach, I do not speak sheker, my matzpun tahor (clean conscience) bearing me witness in the Ruach haKodesh,

9:2  that there is great agmat nefesh (grief) to me and unceasing anguish in my lev.

9:3  For I could wish that my neshamah be put under cherem (ban of destruction), under Churban, and Onesh Gehinnom, cut off from Moshiach for the sake of my achim, my own people and flesh and blood relatives,

9:4  in as much as they are Bnei Yisroel: theirs is the Mishpat HaBanim Adoption, the ma'amad HaBanim (standing as Sons), and the kavod (glory) and the Shechinah (glorious presence of G-d) and the beritot (covenants), the Torah, the avodas kodesh (worship) and the (havtachot (promises);

9:5  theirs are HaAvot (the Patriarchs), and from them came, in so far as His humanity is concerned, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, al haKol hu haElohim. Boruch hu l'olam va'ed. Omein. WILL K'LAL YISROEL FIND GEULAH IN THE MOSHIACH? WHO IS REDEEMED YISROEL? IS THIS SYNONYMOUS WITH YISROEL ACCORDING TO THE BASAR? YA'AKOV AND ESAV WERE BOTH CHILDREN ACCORDING TO THE BASAR, BUT IT WAS NOT A CASE OF THE ZCHUS AVOT OR ZCHUS OF MERIT-EARNING MA'ASEI HATORAH OBLIGATING G-D TO REWARD YA'AKOV (4:4) AS OVER AGAINST HIS TWIN, BUT IT WAS THE PURPOSE OF HASHEM THAT WAS DECISIVE, IN ORDER THAT IT NOT BE A MATTER OF THE ONE WHO WILLS OR THE ONE WHO RUNS (AND THEREFORE EARNS SALVATION BY HIS MERIT IN WILLING AND RUNNING, AND, AS A RESULT, GLORIES IN HIS SELF-ATTAINMENT AND HAS GROUNDS FOR BOASTING BEFORE HASHEM); NO, THE GLORY GOES TO THE ONE GRACEFULLY CHOOSING, NOT THE ONE CHOSEN BY GRACE, FOR HASHEM HAS HIS MASTER PLAN, WHICH IS TO SAVE FOR HIMSELF SOME SURVIVORS, A REMNANT, A ZERA, WHICH ARE HIS MOSHIACH AND HIS PEOPLE OF THE GEULAH, THE PEOPLE OF HAVTACHAH, OF BECHIRAH, AND OF CHANINAH; IT WILL TAKE RAV SHA'UL UP UNTIL THE END OF CHAPTER 11 TO SHOW THAT THIS WILL ALSO INCLUDE THE EVENTUAL GRAFTING IN OF THE WHOLE NATION, ONCE THE FULL NUMBER OF NON-JEWS HAS BEEN GRAFTED IN. THEREFORE, AT THAT TIME, ALL YISROEL WILL FLOW INTO THE KEHILLAH OF MOSHIACH AND THE GEULAH REDEMPTION

9:6  But it is not as though the Dvar Hashem has failed. For not all those descended from Yisroel are truly redeemed Yisroel (of the eschatological Geulah).

9:7  Nor is it as though all the banim of K'lal Yisroel are the ZERA of Avraham Avinu, but (as it is written) BEYITZCHAK YIKARE L'CHA ZERA ("In Yitzchak shall your seed be called/named/summoned" --BERESHIS 21:12).

9:8  That is, it is not the b'nei habasar (children of the flesh/old humanity) who are the b'nei HaElohim (children of G-d) but the b'nei HaHavtacha (children of the promise) who are reckoned as ZERA (seed, children including the right of the heir in relation to the father).

9:9  For this word is one of havtachah (promise): KA'ET SHOV ASHUV UL'SARAH BEN ("About this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son"--BERESHIS 18:10,14).

9:10  Not only so, but also in the case of Rivkah (Isaac's wife) who conceived by the one act of sexual intercourse with Yitzchak Avinu.

9:11  For when they were not yet born nor had done anything tov or rah, good or evil,in order that the tochnit Hashem (purposeful and willed plan of God--8:28) should stand in terms of bechirah (divine election, selection, choosing),

9:12  not from ma'asei mitzvot haTorah but from the One who makes the keri'ah (divine summons, call), it was said to her, RAV YA'AVOD TZA'IR ("the elder will serve the younger"--BERESHIS 25:23),

9:13  as it is written, VA'OHAV ES YA'AKOV V'ES ESAV SANEITI ("Ya'akov have I loved, but Esau have I hated"--MALACHI 1:2-3).

9:14  What then shall we say? There is no avla (injustice) with G-d, is there? Chas v'Shalom!

9:15  For to Moshe Rabbeinu He says, V'CHANOTI ES ASHER ACHON V'RICHAMETTI ES ASHER ARACHEM ("I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion"--SHEMOT 33:19).

9:16  So then, it is not a matter of the one who wills or the one who runs. It is a matter of YAD HASHEM HACHANINAH (the hand of the G-d of gracious, free mercy).

9:17  For the Kitvei Hakodesh says to Pharaoh, BA'AVUR ZOT HE'EMADTICHA BA'AVUR HAROTECHA ES KOCHI ULEMA'AN SAPER SHMI BECHOL HA'ARETZ ("For this purpose I raised you up, in order that I might demonstrate in you my power and in order that my Name might be proclaimed in all the earth"--SHEMOT 9:16).

9:18  So then, to whom He wills He shows chaninah (mercy, free grace), but whom He wills He hardens (that is, makes unresponsive or more mired down in KESHI [stubbornness, hardness DEVARIM 9:27]). THE CHARON AF OF HASHEM AND HIS CHANINAH

9:19  You will say to me then: "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"

9:20  On the contrary, who are you, man, who answers back to G-d? VEYETZER AMAR LEYOTZRO ("Can the pot say to the potter"--YESHAYAH 29:16), "Why have you made me thus?"

9:21  Or does the potter not have the right over the clay [YIRMEYAH 18:6] to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?

9:22  But what if naniach Hashem, willing to demonstrate His Charon Af Hashem (burning anger of G-d) and to make known His ko'ach (power 1:18,16) put up with zitzfleisch (patience), with much endurance, vessels which are objects of G-d's Charon Af (burning anger), objects made ready for Churban (9:3),

9:23  and in order that He might make known the wealth of His kavod (glory) on vessels which are objects of Hashem's chaninah (mercy, free grace) which He prepared beforehand for kavod (glory, 8:29-30).

9:24  By which I mean us, whom also He called, not only from the Yehudim but also from the non-Jews,

9:25  as it says in Hoshea, V'AMARTI L'LO AMMI AMI ATAH ("And I will call the "not my people' my people"--HOSHEA 2:25 [23]) and the "not loved' loved;

9:26  and it shall be in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there they shall be called B'NEI EL CHAI ("sons of the living G-d"--HOSHEA 2:1 [1:10])

9:27  Yeshayah proclaims concerning Yisroel, "Even if the number of the Bnei Yisroel are as the sand of the sea, only the She'ar (Remnant) will return/be saved,

9:28  for Hashem will complete and cut short and will perform His Word on the earth--Yeshayah 10:22-23.

9:29  And as Yeshayah said beforehand, "Except Adonoi Tzvaot had left us SARID KIM'AT ("some survivors" (9:7), we would have become like S'dom and we would have been the same as Amora"-- [YESHAYAH 1:9]. ON YISROEL AND THE BESURAS HAGEULAH; THE TORAH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, THE TORAH WHICH DEFINES RIGHTEOUSNESS, DOING SO BY BRINGING THE DA'AS HACHET AND THE DEATH CURSE OF THE LAW. THE TORAH DEFINES RIGHTEOUSNESS ALSO BY BRINGING THE DA'AS OF MOSHIACH AND HIS COMING ESCHATOLOGICAL RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH BASAR WITHOUT HITKHADESHUT (REGENERATION) CAN NO MORE PURSUE BY MA'ASIM HATORAH THAN IT CAN ESCAPE THE DEATH CURSE OF THE LAW--ROMANS 3:20,23; 6:23); HE WHO HAS EMUNAH IN THE MOSHIACH, THE TZUR MICHSHOL, THE EVEN NEGEF, WILL NOT STUMBLE IN SHAME AT THE YOM HADIN (SEE ALSO DANIEL 12:2); THE MISTAKE OF TAKING THE PATH OF TZEDEK BY PE'ULOT RATHER THAN EMUNAH

9:30  What then shall we say? That Goyim who do not pursue Tzedek (righteousness) have attained Tzedek which is Tzedek through emunah,

9:31  whereas Yisroel pursuing a Tzedek (righteousness) based on the Torah (see Gal.3:12-13 OJBC) did not arrive at that Torah.

9:32  Why so? Because it was not on the mekor (basis) of emunah but on the mekor (basis) of pe'ulot (actions, works-- 3:20,28; 4:2,6; 9:11-12). They have stumbled over the EVEN NEGEF ("Stone of Stumbling" YESHAYAH 8:14; 28:16),

9:33  as it is written--"Hinei, I place in Tziyon a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and he who believes in Me shall not be put to shame" (YESHAYAH 8:14; 28:16).