1 ¶ I say the truth in Christ, I do not lie, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

2 t hat I have great sorrow and continual pain in my heart.

3 F or I could wish that myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren, those who are my kinsmen according to the flesh,

4 w ho are Israelites, to whom pertains the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises,

5 w hose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh is the Christ, who is God over all things, blessed for all the ages. Amen.

6 ¶ Not as though the word of God has been deficient. For not all the descendants of Israel are Israelites;

7 n either, because they are the seed of Abraham, are all sons, but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

8 T hat is, Those who are sons of the flesh, these are not the sons of God; but those who are sons of the promise are counted in the generation.

9 F or the word of the promise is this, At this time I will come, and Sara shall have a son.

10 A nd not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac

11 ( for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand: not of works, but of him that calls),

12 i t was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

13 A s it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

14 ¶ What shall we say then? Is there injustice in God? No, in no wise.

15 F or he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

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

17 F or the scripture saith of Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.

18 T herefore he has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and he hardens whom he will.

19 T hou wilt say then unto me, Why does he become angry? For who shall resist his will?

20 R ather, O man, who art thou to reply against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21 H as not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour?

22 W hat if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much meekness the vessels of wrath, prepared for death,

23 a nd making known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory?

24 E ven us, whom he has called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles!

25 ¶ As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, who were not my people, and her beloved, who was not beloved.

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

27 I saiah also cries out concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant shall be saved;

28 w hen the consumption comes to an end, righteousness shall overflow, because a short sentence will the Lord execute upon the earth.

29 A nd as Isaiah said before, Except the Lord of the hosts had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom and been made like unto Gomorrha.

30 ¶ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, that is to say, the righteousness which is by faith,

31 a nd Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness.

32 W hy? Because they followed it not by faith but, as it were, by the works (of the law); therefore, they stumbled on the stumblingstone;

33 a s it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock that will cause some to fall, and whosoever believes in him shall not be ashamed.