1 I say truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in Holy Spirit,

2 t hat I have great grief and uninterrupted pain in my heart,

3 f or I have wished, I myself, to be a curse from the Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen, according to flesh;

4 w ho are Israelites; whose the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the law-giving, and the service, and the promises;

5 w hose the fathers; and of whom, as according to flesh, the Christ, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

6 N ot however as though the word of God had failed; for not all Israel which of Israel;

7 n or because they are seed of Abraham all children: but, In Isaac shall a seed be called to thee.

8 T hat is, the children of the flesh, these not the children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned as seed.

9 F or this word of promise, According to this time I will come, and there shall be a son to Sarah.

10 A nd not only, but Rebecca having conceived by one, Isaac our father,

11 i ndeed being not yet born, or having done anything good or worthless (that the purpose of God according to election might abide, not of works, but of him that calls),

12 i t was said to her, The greater shall serve the less:

13 a ccording as it is written, I have loved Jacob, and I have hated Esau.

14 W hat shall we say then? unrighteousness with God? Far be the thought.

15 F or he says to Moses, I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy, and I will feel compassion for whom I will feel compassion.

16 S o then not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shews mercy.

17 F or the scripture says to Pharaoh, For this very thing I have raised thee up from amongst, that I might thus shew in thee my power, and so that my name should be declared in all the earth.

18 S o then, to whom he will he shews mercy, and whom he will he hardens.

19 T hou wilt say to me then, Why does he yet find fault? for who resists his purpose?

20 A ye, but thou, O man, who art thou that answerest again to God? Shall the thing formed say to him that has formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21 O r has not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour?

22 A nd if God, minded to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction;

23 a nd that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory,

24 u s, whom he has also called, not only from amongst Jews, but also from amongst nations?

25 A s he says also in Hosea, I will call not-my-people My people; and the-not-beloved Beloved.

26 A nd it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, Ye not my people, there shall they be called Sons of living God.

27 B ut Esaias cries concerning Israel, Should the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved:

28 f or is bringing the matter to an end, and short in righteousness; because] a cutting short of the matter will Lord accomplish upon the earth.

29 A nd according as Esaias said before, Unless Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom, and made like even as Gomorrha.

30 W hat then shall we say? That nations, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained righteousness, but righteousness that is on the principle of faith.

31 B ut Israel, pursuing after a law of righteousness, has not attained to law.

32 W herefore? Because not on the principle of faith, but as of works. They have stumbled at the stumblingstone,

33 a ccording as it is written, Behold, I place in Zion a stone of stumbling and rock of offence: and he that believes on him shall not be ashamed.