¹I am speaking the truth in Christ – I am not lying – with my conscience jointly bearing me witness by holy spirit, ²that I have great sorrow and continual distress in my heart. ³For I could vow that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh, ⁴who are Israelites, who have the adoption and the glory and the covenants and the instituting of the law and the service and the promises, ⁵of whom the fathers are, and from whom Christ is as regards the flesh, who is above all, God blessed throughout the ages. Amen. ⁶But it is not so that the word of God has failed. For it is not all those of Israel who are Israel, ⁷nor is it so that because they are the seed of Abraham, they are all children, but, “In the line of Isaac your seed will be called.” ⁸This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but rather that the children of the promise are counted as seed. ⁹For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰And not only this, but Rebecca also conceived from one man, Isaac our father, ¹¹for while they had not yet been born and had not done anything good or bad (so that the purpose of God should stand by choice, not of works, but by him who does the calling) ¹²it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.” ¹³As it stands written: “I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.” ¹⁴What, then, shall we say? Surely there is no injustice with God? May it not be so. ¹⁵For he says to Moses, “I will show mercy to whomever I will show mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” ¹⁶So then, it is not a matter of him who wishes, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I raised you up for this very thing: that I might show my power by means of you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸So he has mercy on whom he wishes, and he hardens whom he wishes. ¹⁹Then you will say to me, “Why does he blame anyone then? For who is withstanding his will?” ²⁰Rather, O man, who are you to answer back to God? Will the artefact say to the fashioner, “Why did you make me like this?”? ²¹Or does the potter not have the power over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel having honour, but another lacking honour? ²²So what if God, wishing to show anger and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath, prepared for destruction, ²³and acted in order that he might make the riches of his glory known on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory – ²⁴us whom he called, not only out of the Jews, but also out of the Gentiles. ²⁵As he also says in Hosea, ²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ²⁹And as Isaiah foretold, ³⁰What, then, shall we say? – That the Gentiles who do not pursue righteousness have attained righteousness, and righteousness out of faith at that. ³¹But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not come up to the standard of the law of righteousness. ³²How come? Because they pursued it not out of faith but out of works of the law. For they stumbled at the stumbling block, ³³as it stands written:

Reference(s) in Chapter 9: v.7 ↔ Genesis 21:12 ● v.9 ↔ Genesis 18:14 ● v.12 ↔ Genesis 25:23 ● v.13 ↔ Malachi 1:2, Malachi 1:3, Deuteronomy 21:15 ● v.15 ↔ Exodus 33:19 ● v.17 ↔ Exodus 9:16 ● v.20 ↔ Isaiah 29:16, Isaiah 45:9 ● v.25 ↔ Hosea 1:9, Hosea 2:1^MT (Hosea 1:10^AV) ● v.26 ↔ Hosea 2:1^MT (Hosea 1:10^AV), Hosea 2:25^MT (Hosea 2:23^AV) ● v.27 ↔ Isaiah 10:22 ● v.28 ↔ Isaiah 10:22, Isaiah 10:23 ● v.29 ↔ Isaiah 1:9 ● v.33 ↔ Isaiah 8:14, Isaiah 28:16, Psalm 118:22.