Romans 9

Paul’s Anguish Over Israel

¹I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, ²that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh, ⁴who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; ⁵of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

⁶But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. ⁷Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, ^[a] are they all children. But, “your offspring ^[b] will be accounted as from Isaac.” ^[c] ⁸That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. ⁹For this is a word of promise, “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” ^[d] ¹⁰Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. ¹¹For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, ^[e] ¹²it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.” ^[f] ¹³Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” ^[g]

¹⁴What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! ¹⁵For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ^[h] ¹⁶So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ^[i] ¹⁸So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. ¹⁹You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” ²⁰But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” ^[j] ²¹Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²²What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction, ²³and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As he says also in Hosea,

“I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people;
and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.” ^[k]
²⁶“It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
There they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” ^[l]

²⁷Isaiah cries concerning Israel,

“If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea,
it is the remnant who will be saved;
²⁸for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.” ^[m]

²⁹As Isaiah has said before,

“Unless the Lord of Armies ^[n] had left us a seed,
we would have become like Sodom,
and would have been made like Gomorrah.” ^[o]

³⁰What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; ³¹but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. ³²Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; ³³even as it is written,

“Behold, ^[p] I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense;
and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.” ^[q]

Footnotes:

[a] Romans 9:7 or, seed
[b] Romans 9:7 or, seed
[c] Romans 9:7 Genesis 21:12 [c-1]
[d] Romans 9:9 Genesis 18:10 [d-1], Genesis 18:14 [d-2]
[e] Romans 9:11 NA puts the phrase “not of works, but of him who calls” at the beginning of verse 12 instead of the end of verse 11.
[f] Romans 9:12 Genesis 25:23 [f-1]
[g] Romans 9:13 Malachi 1:2-3 [g-1]
[h] Romans 9:15 Exodus 33:19 [h-1]
[i] Romans 9:17 Exodus 9:16 [i-1]
[j] Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16 [j-1]; Isaiah 45:9 [j-2]
[k] Romans 9:25 Hosea 2:23 [k-1]
[l] Romans 9:26 Hosea 1:10 [l-1]
[m] Romans 9:28 Isaiah 10:22-23 [m-1]
[n] Romans 9:29 Greek: Sabaoth (for Hebrew: Tze’va’ot)
[o] Romans 9:29 Isaiah 1:9 [o-1]
[p] Romans 9:33 “Behold”, from “ἰδοὺ”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
[q] Romans 9:33 Isaiah 8:14 [q-1]; Isaiah 28:16 [q-2]

Old Testament Footnotes:

[c-1] Genesis 21:12 ¹²God said to Abraham, “Don’t let it be grievous in your sight because of the boy, and because of your servant. In all that Sarah says to you, listen to her voice. For your offspring ^[a] will be accounted as from Isaac.

Footnote:

[a] Genesis 21:12 or, seed

[d-1] Genesis 18:10 ¹⁰He said, “I will certainly return to you when the season comes round. Behold, Sarah your wife will have a son.”

Sarah heard in the tent door, which was behind him.

[d-2] Genesis 18:14 ¹⁴Is anything too hard for Yahweh? At the set time I will return to you, when the season comes round, and Sarah will have a son.”

[f-1] Genesis 25:23

²³Yahweh said to her,

“Two nations are in your womb.
Two peoples will be separated from your body.
The one people will be stronger than the other people.
The elder will serve the younger.”

[g-1] Malachi 1:2-3

²“I have loved you,” says Yahweh.

Yet you say, “How have you loved us?”

“Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says Yahweh, “Yet I loved Jacob; ³but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”

[h-1] Exodus 33:19 ¹⁹He said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim Yahweh’s name before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”

[i-1] Exodus 9:16 ¹⁶but indeed for this cause I have made you stand: to show you my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth;

[j-1] Isaiah 29:16 ¹⁶You turn things upside down! Should the potter be thought to be like clay; that the thing made should say about him who made it, “He didn’t make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding?”

[j-2] Isaiah 45:9

⁹Woe to him who strives with his Maker—
a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth!
Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’
or your work, ‘He has no hands?’

[k-1] Hosea 2:23

²³I will sow her to me in the earth;
    and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
    and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’
    and they will say, ‘My God!’”

[l-1] Hosea 1:10 ¹⁰Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

[m-1] Isaiah 10:22-23 ²²For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. ²³For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, throughout all the earth.

[o-1] Isaiah 1:9

⁹Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant,
we would have been as Sodom;
we would have been like Gomorrah.

[q-1] Isaiah 8:14 ¹⁴He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

[q-2] Isaiah 28:16 ¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.

Romans 8 † Romans 10

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