LEB - Romans - 9

9:1  I am telling the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears witness to me in the Holy Spirit—

9:2  that my grief is great and there is constant distress in my heart.

9:3  For I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my fellow countrymen according to the flesh,

9:4  who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises,

9:5  to whom belong the patriarchs, and from whom is the Christ according to human descent, who is God over all, blessed ⌞forever⌟! Amen.

9:6  But it is not as if the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,

9:7  nor are they all children because they are descendants of Abraham, but “In Isaac will your descendants be named.”

9:8  That is, it is not the children ⌞by human descent⌟ who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.

9:9  For the statement of the promise is this: “At this time I will return and ⌞Sarah will have⌟ a son.”

9:10  And not only this, but also when Rebecca conceived children by one man, Isaac our father—

9:11  for although they had not yet been born, or done anything good or evil, in order that the purpose of God according to election might remain,

9:12  not by works but by the one who calls—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”

9:13  just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

9:14  What then shall we say? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!

9:15  For to Moses he says, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”

9:16  Consequently therefore, ⌞it does not depend on the⌟ one who wills or on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy.

9:17  For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

9:18  Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes.

9:19  Therefore you will say to me, “Why then does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will?

9:20  On the contrary, O man, who are you who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this”?

9:21  Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that is for ⌞honorable use⌟ and one that is for ⌞ordinary use⌟?

9:22  And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?

9:23  And he did so in order that he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory,

9:24  us whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

9:25  As he also says in Hosea, “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and those who were not loved, ‘Loved.’

9:26  And it will be in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

9:27  And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Even if the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved,

9:28  ⌞for the Lord will execute his sentence thoroughly and decisively⌟ upon the earth.”

9:29  And just as Isaiah foretold, “If the Lord of hosts had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah.”

9:30  What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness—even the righteousness that is by faith.

9:31  But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law.

9:32  Why that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if by works. They stumbled over the ⌞stone that causes people to stumble⌟,

9:33  just as it is written, “Behold, I am laying in Zion ⌞a stone that causes people to stumble⌟, and ⌞a rock that causes them to fall⌟, and the one who believes in him will not be put to shame.”