LO - Romans - 9

9:1  I speak the truth in Christ, I do not speak falsely, my conscience bearing me witness, in the Holy Spirit,

9:2  that I have great grief and unceasing anguish, in my heart,

9:3  for my brethren, --my kinsmen, according to the flesh; (for I also was, myself, wishing to be accursed from Christ:)

9:4  who are Israelites; whose are the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the rites of service, and the promises;

9:5  whose are the fathers; and from whom the Messiah descended , according to the flesh; who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

9:6  Now, it is not to be supposed that the promise of God has failed; for all the descendants of Israel are not Israel.

9:7  Neither are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but "In Isaac shall your seed be called."

9:8  That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for seed.

9:9  For the word of promise was this, "According to this time, I will come, and Sarah shall have a son."

9:10  And not only this, but Rebecca, also, having conceived twins, by one, even Isaac our father;

9:11  (they, indeed, not being yet born; neither having done any good or evil; that the purpose of God might stand, by an election; not on account of works, but of him who calls:)

9:12  it was said to her, "The elder shall serve the younger";

9:13  as it is written, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have slighted."

9:14  What shall we, then, say? Is there not injustice with God?

9:15  By no means. For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."

9:16  So, then, it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs; but of God, who shows mercy.

9:17  Besides, the scripture says to Pharaoh, "Even for this same purpose I have roused you up; that I might show, in you, my power; and that my name might be published through all the earth."

9:18  Well, then, he has mercy on whom he will; and whom he will, he hardens.

9:19  But you will say to me, Why does he still find fault, for who has resisted his will?

9:20  Nay, but, O man, who are you, who reply against God? Shall the thing formed, say to him who formed it, Why have you made me thus?

9:21  Has not the potter a just power over the clay, to make of the same lump one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor?

9:22  Yet God, willing to show his wrath, and make know his power, did bear, with much long-suffering, the vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction.

9:23  And that he might make known the riches of his glory, on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory:

9:24  even us, whom he has called; not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.

9:25  Even as he says, by Hosea, "They shall be called my people, who were not my people; and she beloved, who was not beloved.

9:26  And it shall come to pass, in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people; there they shall be called, Sons of the living God."

9:27  Besides, Isaiah cries, concerning Israel, "Through the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant shall be saved.

9:28  For he was about to complete and hasten his work in righteousness; for a short work will the Lord make upon this land."

9:29  And, as Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and been made like to Gomorrah."

9:30  What shall we say, then, that the Gentiles, who did not seek after justification, have attained justification, even a justification which is by faith?

9:31  But Israel, who followed a law of justification, have not attained to a law of justification.

9:32  Why? Because they sought it not by faith; but, as it were, by works of law: for they stumbled, at the stone of stumbling.

9:33  As it is written, "Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense; and whosoever believes on it, shall not be ashamed."