Romans

¹I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying. My conscience offers testimony to me in the Holy Spirit, ↗

²because the sadness within me is great, and there is a continuous sorrow in my heart. ↗

³For I was desiring that I myself might be anathemized from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh. ↗

⁴These are the Israelites, to whom belongs adoption as sons, and the glory and the testament, and the giving and following of the law, and the promises. ↗

⁵Theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all things, blessed God, for all eternity. Amen. ↗

⁶But it is not that the Word of God has perished. For not all those who are Israelites are of Israel. ↗

⁷And not all sons are the offspring of Abraham: ”For your offspring will be invoked in Isaac.“ ↗

⁸In other words, those who are the sons of God are not those who are sons of the flesh, but those who are sons of the Promise; these are considered to be the offspring. ↗

⁹For the word of promise is this: ”I will return at the proper time. And there shall be a son for Sarah.“ ↗

¹⁰And she was not alone. For Rebecca also, having conceived by Isaac our father, from one act, ↗

¹¹when the children had not yet been born, and had not yet done anything good or bad (such that the purpose of God might be based on their choice), ↗

¹²and not because of deeds, but because of a calling, it was said to her: ”The elder shall serve the younger.“ ↗

¹³So also it was written: ”I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau.“ ↗

¹⁴What should we say next? Is there unfairness with God? Let it not be so! ↗

¹⁵For to Moses he says: ”I will pity whomever I pity. And I will offer mercy to whomever I will pity.“ ↗

¹⁶Therefore, it is not based on those who choose, nor on those who excel, but on God who takes pity. ↗

¹⁷For Scripture says to the Pharaoh: ”I have raised you up for this purpose, so that I may reveal my power by you, and so that my name may be announced to all the earth.“ ↗

¹⁸Therefore, he takes pity on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. ↗

¹⁹And so, you would say to me: ”Then why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?“ ↗

²⁰O man, who are you to question God? How can the thing that has been formed say to the One who formed him: ”Why have you made me this way?“ ↗

²¹And does not the potter have the authority over the clay to make, from the same material, indeed, one vessel unto honor, yet truly another unto disgrace? ↗

²²What if God, wanting to reveal his wrath and to make his power known, endured, with much patience, vessels deserving wrath, fit to be destroyed, ↗

²³so that he might reveal the wealth of his glory, within these vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory? ↗

²⁴And so it is with those of us whom he has also called, not only from among the Jews, but even from among the Gentiles, ↗

²⁵just as he says in Hosea: ”I will call those who were not my people, ‘my people,’ and she who was not beloved, ‘beloved,’ and she who had not obtained mercy, ‘one who has obtained mercy.’ ↗

²⁶And this shall be: in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they shall be called the sons of the living God.“ ↗

²⁷And Isaiah cried out on behalf of Israel: ”When the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. ↗

²⁸For he shall complete his word, while abbreviating it out of equity. For the Lord shall accomplish a brief word upon the earth.“ ↗

²⁹And it is just as Isaiah predicted: ”Unless the Lord of hosts had bequeathed offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made similar to Gomorrah.“ ↗

³⁰What should we say next? That the Gentiles who did not follow justice have attained justice, even the justice that is of faith. ↗

³¹Yet truly, Israel, though following the law of justice, has not arrived at the law of justice. ↗

³²Why is this? Because they did not seek it from faith, but as if it were from works. For they stumbled over a stumbling block, ↗

³³just as it was written: ”Behold, I am placing a stumbling block in Zion, and a rock of scandal. But whoever believes in him shall not be confounded.“ ↗