| Romans 9 | ||
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New
American Standard Bible
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| I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, | |
| that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. | |
| For I could wish that I myself were accursed, {separated} from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, | |
| who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the {temple} service and the promises, | |
| whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen. | |
| But {it is} not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are {descended} from Israel; | |
| nor are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED." | |
| That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. | |
| For this is the word of promise: "AT THIS TIME I WILL COME, AND SARAH SHALL HAVE A SON." | |
| And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived {twins} by one man, our father Isaac; | |
| for though {the twins} were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to {His} choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, | |
| it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER." | |
| Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." | |
| What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! | |
| For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." | |
| So then it {does} not {depend} on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. | |
| For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." | |
| So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. | |
| You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" | |
| On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? | |
| Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? | |
| What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? | |
| And {He did so} to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, | |
| {even} us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. | |
| As He says also in Hosea, "I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, 'MY PEOPLE,' AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, 'BELOVED.' " | |
| "AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, 'YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,' THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD." | |
| Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; | |
| FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY." | |
| And just as Isaiah foretold, "UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH." | |
| What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; | |
| but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at {that} law. | |
| Why? Because {they did} not {pursue it} by faith, but as though {it were} by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, | |
| just as it is written, "BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED." |
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