Montgomery - Romans - 9

9:1  I am speaking the truth in Christ, it is no lie. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have deep sorrow

9:2  and incessant anguish in my heart.

9:3  For I was on the point of praying to be accursed from Christ on behalf of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

9:4  For they are Israelites; to them belong the sonship, the Shekinah glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law; the service of the temple, and the promises;

9:5  theirs are the patriarchs, and of them, as concerning the flesh, is Christ, who is over all, God, blessed forever, Amen.

9:6  It is not, however, as though God’s word had failed! For they are not all Israel who have sprung from Israel;

9:7  they are not all children of Abraham because they are Abraham’s descendants. The promise was, In Isaac shall thy posterity be called.

9:8  That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as his posterity.

9:9  For thus is the word of promise, According to this season I will come, and Sarah shall bear a son.

9:10  And not only so, but when Rebecca was pregnant by our forefather Isaac, though one man was the father of both children,

9:11  and even though they were still unborn, and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that the purpose of God might stand according to election, not of works, but of Him who called,

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

9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

9:14  What shall we say then? that there is injustice with God? No indeed.

9:15  His words to Moses are. I will have mercy on whom I choose to have mercy; I will have compassion on whom I choose to have compassion.

9:16  So then it is not a question of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

9:17  For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, It is for this very purpose that I have raised you up, To show in you my power, And to proclaim my name far and wide, in all the earth.

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

9:19  Then you will say to me. "Why does he still go on finding fault? Who can withstand his will?"

9:20  "Nay, but who are you, O man, that replies to God? Shall the thing formed say unto him who formed it, "Why did you do me like this?"

9:21  Or has not the potter power over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for noble, and another for ignoble uses?

9:22  But what if God, while intending to show forth his wrath, and to make known his power, yet endured, with much long-suffering, vessels of wrath, fitted to destruction?

9:23  And what if he thus purposed to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory?

9:24  Now such are we whom he has called, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles.

9:25  As he also said in Hosea. Those who were not my people I will call "my people," And her "beloved" who was not beloved;

9:26  And in that very spot where it was told them, "You are not my people," There they shall be called "Sons of the living God."

9:27  And in regard to Israel, Isaiah exclaims. Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sands of the sea, it is but a remnant of those who shall be saved;

9:28  for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.

9:29  Even as in an earlier passage, Isaiah says, Except the Lord of Sabbath had us some few descendants, we should have become like Sodom, and should have fared like Gomorrah.

9:30  What then shall we say? That Gentiles who never pursed righteousness have overtaken it, even the righteousness of faith?

9:31  But that the descendants of Israel, who were in pursuit of a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law?

9:32  And why? Because they sought it not by faith, but thought to gain it by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling;

9:33  even as it is written. Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; but he that believes on Him shall not be put to shame.