Paul’s Concern for the Jews

1I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me testimony in the Holy Spirit, 2That I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart; 3for I could wish myself to be accursed from Christ, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh; 4who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service, and the promises; 5to whom belong the fathers, and of whom is the Christ, as it respects the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

God’s Sovereign Choice

6It is not possible that the word of God has failed; for they are not all Israel who are of Israel. 7Nor, because they are the posterity of Abraham, are they all children: but in Isaac shall your posterity be called. 8That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the posterity. 9For the word of the promise is this: At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. 10Not only so, but when Rebecca had conceived by one, even our father Isaac, 11(the children, indeed, having not yet been born, and having done neither good nor evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calls,) 12it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger; 13as it is written: Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

14What, then, shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with. God? It can not be. 15For he says to Moses: I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy; and I will show compassion to whom I will show compassion. 16Therefore, it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. 17For the scripture says to Pharaoh: For this very purpose have I raised you up, that I may show in you my power, and that my name may be published in all the earth. 18Therefore, he has mercy on whom he wills to have mercy: and whom he wills to harden, he hardens.

19You will then say to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who has resisted his will? 20No, but rather, O man, who are you that dispute with God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed, it, Why have you made me thus? 21Has not the potter power over the clay, to make from the same mass one vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? 22What, then, if God, intending to show his wrath, and to make his power known, yet, in much long-suffering bore with the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction: 23and, that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he before prepared for glory, showed mercy to us, 24whom he has called, not only from among the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

25As he says also in Hosea: I will call that my people which is not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.

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

27But Isaiah cries concerning Israel: Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 28for his word he fulfills, and he decrees in righteousness; for his word that is decreed, will the Lord execute upon the land.

29And as Isaiah said before: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a posterity, we should have been like Sodom, and been made like Gomorrah.

Israel’s Unbelief

30What, then, shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not seek after justification, have obtained justification, even the justification which is by faith: 31but Israel, who sought after a law of justification, has not attained to a law of justification. 32And why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as if by works of law: for they stumbled against that stone of stumbling,

33as it is written: Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense: and whoever believes on him, shall not be ashamed.