| 1 | I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, |
| 2 | That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. |
| 3 | For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: |
| 4 | Who are Israelites; to whom [pertaineth] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service [of God], and the promises; |
| 5 | Whose [are] the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ [came], who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. |
| 6 | Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel: |
| 7 | Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. |
| 8 | That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. |
| 9 | For this [is] the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. |
| 10 | And not only [this]; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac; |
| 11 | (For [the children] being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) |
| 12 | It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. |
| 13 | As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. |
| 14 | What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? God forbid. |
| 15 | For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. |
| 16 | So then [it is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. |
| 17 | For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. |
| 18 | Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth. |
| 19 | Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? |
| 20 | Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus? |
| 21 | Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? |
| 22 | [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: |
| 23 | And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, |
| 24 | Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? |
| 25 | As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. |
| 26 | And it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. |
| 27 | Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: |
| 28 | For he will finish the work, and cut [it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. |
| 29 | And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. |
| 30 | What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. |
| 31 | But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. |
| 32 | Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; |
| 33 | As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. |
