1 - Truth I say in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing testimony with me in the Holy Spirit,
2 - that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart--
3 - for I was wishing, I myself, to be anathema from the Christ--for my brethren, my kindred, according to the flesh,
4 - who are Israelites, whose <FI>is<Fi> the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises,
5 - whose <FI>are<Fi> the fathers, and of whom <FI>is<Fi> the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen.
6 - And it is not possible that the word of God hath failed; for not all who <FI>are<Fi> of Israel are these Israel;
7 - nor because they are seed of Abraham <FI>are<Fi> all children, but--`in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;'
8 - that is, the children of the flesh--these <FI>are<Fi> not children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed;
9 - for the word of promise <FI>is<Fi> this; `According to this time I will come, and there shall be to Sarah a son.'
10 - And not only <FI>so<Fi> , 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 - according as it hath been written, `Jacob I did love, and Esau I did hate.'
14 - What, then, shall we say? unrighteousness <FI>is<Fi> with God? let it not be!
15 - for to Moses He saith, `I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion;'
16 - so, then--not of him who is willing, nor of him who is running, but of God who is doing kindness:
17 - for 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 - so, then, to whom He willeth, He doth kindness, and to whom He willeth, He doth harden.
19 - Thou wilt say, then, to me, `Why yet doth He find fault? for His counsel who hath resisted?'
20 - nay, but, O man, who art thou that art answering again to God? shall the thing formed say to Him who did form <FI>it<Fi> , Why me didst thou make thus?
21 - hath 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 - And 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 - and 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 - not only out of Jews, but also out of nations,
25 - as also in Hosea He saith, `I will call what <FI>is<Fi> not My people--My people; and her not beloved--Beloved,
26 - and it shall be--in the place where it was said to them, Ye <FI>are<Fi> not My people; there they shall be called sons of the living God.'
27 - And 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 - for a matter He is finishing, and is cutting short in righteousness, because a matter cut short will the Lord do upon the land.
29 - and 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 - What, then, shall we say? that nations who are not pursuing righteousness did attain to righteousness, and righteousness that <FI>is<Fi> of faith,
31 - and Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, at a law of righteousness did not arrive;
32 - wherefore? because--not by faith, but as by works of law; for they did stumble at the stone of stumbling,
33 - according 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.'
