| 1 | I say the truth in Christ , I lie not , my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost , |
| 2 | That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart . |
| 3 | For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren , my kinsmen according to the flesh : |
| 4 | Who are Israelites ; to whom [pertaineth] the adoption , and the glory , and the covenants , and the giving of the law , and the service [of God], and the promises ; |
| 5 | Whose [are] the fathers , and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ [came], who is over all , God blessed for ever . Amen . |
| 6 | Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect . For they [are] not all Israel , which are of Israel : |
| 7 | Neither , because they are the seed of Abraham , [are they] all children : but , In Isaac shall thy seed be called . |
| 8 | That is, They which are the children of the flesh , these [are] not the children of God : but the children of the promise are counted for the seed . |
| 9 | For this [is] the word of promise , At this time will I come , and Sara shall have a son . |
| 10 | And 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 calleth ;) |
| 12 | It was said unto her , The elder shall serve the younger . |
| 13 | As it is written , Jacob have I loved , but Esau have I hated . |
| 14 | What shall we say then ? [Is there] unrighteousness with God ? God forbid . |
| 15 | For 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 | So then [it is] not of him that willeth , nor of him that runneth , but of God that sheweth mercy . |
| 17 | For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh , Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up , that I might shew my power in thee , and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth . |
| 18 | Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth . |
| 19 | Thou wilt say then unto me , Why doth he yet find fault ? For who hath resisted his will ? |
| 20 | Nay but , O man , who art thou that repliest against God ? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus ? |
| 21 | Hath not the potter power over the clay , of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour , and another unto dishonour ? |
| 22 | [What] if God , willing to shew [his] wrath , and to make his power known , endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction : |
| 23 | And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy , which he had afore prepared unto glory , |
| 24 | Even us , whom he hath called , not of the Jews only , but also of the Gentiles ? |
| 25 | As he saith also in Osee , I will call them my people , which were not my people ; and her beloved , which was not beloved . |
| 26 | And 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 the children of the living God . |
| 27 | Esaias also crieth concerning Israel , Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea , a remnant shall be saved : |
| 28 | For he will finish the work , and cut [it] short in righteousness : because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth . |
| 29 | And as Esaias said before , Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed , we had been as Sodoma , and been made like unto Gomorrha . |
| 30 | What shall we say then ? That the Gentiles , which followed not after righteousness , have attained to righteousness , even the righteousness which is of faith . |
| 31 | But Israel , which followed after the law of righteousness , hath not attained to the law of righteousness . |
| 32 | Wherefore ? Because [they sought it] not by faith , but as it were by the works of the law . For they stumbled at that stumblingstone ; |
| 33 | As it is written , Behold , I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence : and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed . |
