1 ¶ I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie, as my conscience also bears witness in the Holy Spirit,

2 That I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

3 For I could wish that I were myself accursed from Christ in place of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

4 For they are Israelites; and to them belongs the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;

5 The fathers are theirs, and of them as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

6 ¶ But it is not as though the word of God has had no effect. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to the spiritual Israel:

7 And they are not all Abraham’s children, just because they are descended from him: on the contrary, Through Isaac shall your descendants come.

8 That is, It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted as the descendants.

9 For this is a word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.

10 And not only that; but when Rebecca had also conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac;

11 Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls;

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? Absolutely not.

15 For he said 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 salvation is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.

17 For the scripture said to Pharaoh, For this very purpose I raised you up, in order that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

18 Therefore he has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

19 You will ask me, Why does God still condemn? For who has resisted his will?

20 But who are you, O man, to speak against God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this?

21 Does not the potter have the right to make, from the same lump of clay, one vessel to honor, and another to dishonor?

22 But what if God, although willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with great patience the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction:

23 In order to make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory,

24 Even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

25 ¶ As he said also in Hosea, 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, You are not my people; there they will be called the children of the living God.

27 Isaiah also cried concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, a remnant will 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 Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of Hosts had left us a seed, we would have been as Sodom, and would have been like Gomorrah.

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

31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

32 Why? Because they did not seek it through faith, but through the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling-stone;

33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling-stone and rock of offence: and whosoever believes on him will not be put to shame.