1 T ruth I say in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing testimony with me in the Holy Spirit,

2 t hat I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart --

3 f or I was wishing, I myself, to be anathema from the Christ -- for my brethren, my kindred, according to the flesh,

4 w ho are Israelites, whose the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises,

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

6 A nd it is not possible that the word of God hath failed; for not all who of Israel are these 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 children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed;

9 f or the word of promise this; `According to this time I will come, and there shall be to Sarah a son.'

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

11 ( for they being not yet born, neither having done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to choice, might remain; not of works, but of Him who is calling,) it was said to her --

12 ` The greater shall serve the less;'

13 a ccording as it hath been written, `Jacob I did love, and Esau I did hate.'

14 W hat, then, shall we say? unrighteousness with God? let it not be!

15 f or to Moses He saith, `I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion;'

16 s o, then -- not of him who is willing, nor of him who is running, but of God who is doing kindness:

17 f or the Writing saith to Pharaoh -- `For this very thing I did raise thee up, that I might shew in thee My power, and that My name might be declared in all the land;'

18 s o, then, to whom He willeth, He doth kindness, and to whom He willeth, He doth harden.

19 T hou wilt say, then, to me, `Why yet doth He find fault? for His counsel who hath resisted?'

20 n ay, but, O man, who art thou that art answering again to God? shall the thing formed say to Him who did form, Why me didst thou make thus?

21 h ath not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make the one vessel to honour, and the one to dishonour?

22 A nd if God, willing to shew the wrath and to make known His power, did endure, in much long suffering, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,

23 a nd that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of kindness, that He before prepared for glory, whom also He did call -- us --

24 n ot only out of Jews, but also out of nations,

25 a s also in Hosea He saith, `I will call what not My people -- My people; and her not beloved -- Beloved,

26 a nd it shall be -- in the place where it was said to them, Ye not My people; there they shall be called sons of the living God.'

27 A nd Isaiah doth cry concerning Israel, `If the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved;

28 f or a matter He is finishing, and is cutting short in righteousness, because a matter cut short will the Lord do upon the land.

29 a nd according as Isaiah saith before, `Except the Lord of Sabaoth did leave to us a seed, as Sodom we had become, and as Gomorrah we had been made like.'

30 W hat, then, shall we say? that nations who are not pursuing righteousness did attain to righteousness, and righteousness that of faith,

31 a nd Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, at a law of righteousness did not arrive;

32 w herefore? because -- not by faith, but as by works of law; for they did stumble at the stone of stumbling,

33 a ccording as it hath been written, `Lo, I place in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; and every one who is believing thereon shall not be ashamed.'