| NET Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1I am telling the truth in Christ (I am not lying!), for my conscience assures me in the Holy Spirit-- | 1With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it. |
| 2I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. | 2My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief |
| 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed--cut off from Christ--for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen, | 3for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. |
| 4who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. | 4They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises. |
| 5To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever! Amen. | 5Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. |
| 6It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, | 6Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people! |
| 7nor are all the children Abraham's true descendants; rather "through Isaac will your descendants be counted." | 7Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too. |
| 8This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants. | 8This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children. |
| 9For this is what the promise declared: "About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son." | 9For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.” |
| 10Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac-- | 10This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins. |
| 11even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God's purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling)-- | 11But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes; |
| 12it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger," | 12he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.” |
| 13just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." | 13In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.” |
| 14What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! | 14Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not! |
| 15For he says to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." | 15For God said to Moses, “I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.” |
| 16So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. | 16So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it. |
| 17For the scripture says to Pharaoh: "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." | 17For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.” |
| 18So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. | 18So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen. |
| 19You will say to me then, "Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?" | 19Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?” |
| 20But who indeed are you--a mere human being--to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, "Why have you made me like this?" | 20No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?” |
| 21Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? | 21When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into? |
| 22But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction? | 22In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. |
| 23And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory-- | 23He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory. |
| 24even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? | 24And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles. |
| 25As he also says in Hosea: "I will call those who were not my people, 'My people,' and I will call her who was unloved, 'My beloved.'" | 25Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.” |
| 26"And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.'" | 26And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” |
| 27And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, "Though the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, | 27And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out, “Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved. |
| 28for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly." | 28For the LORD will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.” |
| 29Just as Isaiah predicted, "If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah." | 29And Isaiah said the same thing in another place: “If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.” Israel’s Unbelief |
| 30What shall we say then?--that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith, | 30What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place. |
| 31but Israel even though pursuing a law of righteousness did not attain it. | 31But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded. |
| 32Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, | 32Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path. |
| 33just as it is written, "Look, I am laying in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble and a rock that will make them fall, yet the one who believes in him will not be put to shame." | 33God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” |
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