Romans 9
9
God's Choice of Israel
1I am a follower of Christ, and the Holy Spirit is a witness to my conscience. So I tell the truth and I am not lying when I say 2my heart is broken and I am in great sorrow. 3I would gladly be placed under God's curse and be separated from Christ for the good of my own people. 4#Ex 4.22. They are the descendants of Israel, and they are also God's chosen people. God showed them his glory. He made agreements with them and gave them his Law. The temple is theirs and so are the promises that God made to them. 5They have those famous ancestors, who were also the ancestors of the Christ.#9.5 Christ: Or “Messiah.” I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever!#9.5 Christ. I pray that God, who rules over all, will be praised forever: Or “Christ, who rules over all. I pray that God will be praised forever” or “Christ. And I pray that Christ, who is God and rules over all, will be praised forever.” Amen.
6It cannot be said that God broke his promise. After all, not all of the people of Israel are the true people of God. 7-8#Gn 21.12. In fact, when God made the promise to Abraham, he meant only Abraham's descendants by his son Isaac. God was talking only about Isaac when he promised 9#Gn 18.10. Sarah, “At this time next year I will return, and you will already have a son.”
10Don't forget what happened to the twin sons of Isaac and Rebekah. 11-12#Gn 25.23. Even before they were born or had done anything good or bad, the Lord told Rebekah that her older son would serve the younger one. The Lord said this to show he makes his own choices and it wasn't because of anything either of them had done. 13#Ml 1.2,3. That's why the Scriptures say that the Lord liked Jacob more than Esau.
14Are we saying God is unfair? Certainly not! 15#Ex 33.19. The Lord told Moses that he has pity and mercy on anyone he wants to. 16Everything then depends on God's mercy and not on what people want or do. 17#Ex 9.16 (LXX); 3 Macc 2.6. In the Scriptures the Lord says to the king of Egypt, “I let you become king, so that I could show you my power and be praised by all people on earth.” 18Everything depends on what God decides to do, and he can either have pity on people or make them stubborn.
God's Anger and Mercy
19Someone may ask, “How can God blame us, if he makes us behave in the way he wants us to?” 20#Is 29.16; 45.9; Ws 12.12. But, my friend, I ask, “Who do you think you are to question God? Does the clay have the right to ask the potter why he shaped it the way he did? 21#Ws 15.7; Si 33.13. Doesn't a potter have the right to make a fancy bowl and a plain bowl out of the same lump of clay?”
22 #
Ws 12.20,21. God wanted to show his anger and reveal his power against everyone who deserved to be destroyed. But instead, he patiently put up with them. 23He did this by showing how glorious he is when he has pity on the people he has chosen to share in his glory. 24Whether Jews or Gentiles, we are those chosen ones, 25#Ho 2.23. just as the Lord says in the book of Hosea,
“Although they are not
my people,
I will make them my people.
I will treat with love
those nations
that have never been loved.
26 #
Ho 1.10. “Once they were told,
‘You are not my people.’
But in that very place
they will be called
children of the living God.”
27 # Is 10.21-23 (LXX). And this is what the prophet Isaiah said about the people of Israel,
“The people of Israel
are as many
as the grains of sand
along the beach.
But only a few who are left
will be saved.
28The Lord will be quick
and sure to do on earth
what he has warned
he will do.”
29 # Is 1.9 (LXX). Isaiah also said,
“If the Lord All-Powerful
had not spared some
of our descendants,
we would have been destroyed
like the cities of Sodom
and Gomorrah.”#9.29 Sodom and Gomorrah: During the time of Abraham the Lord destroyed these two cities because their people were so sinful.
Israel and the Good News
30What does all of this mean? It means that the Gentiles were not trying to be acceptable to God, but they found that he would accept them if they had faith. 31-32It also means that the people of Israel were not acceptable to God. And why not? It was because they were trying#9.31,32 because they were trying: Or “while they were trying” or “even though they were trying.” to be acceptable by obeying the Law instead of by having faith in God. The people of Israel fell over the stone that makes people stumble, 33#Is 28.16 (LXX). just as God says in the Scriptures,
“Look! I am placing in Zion
a stone to make people
stumble and fall.
But those who have faith
in that one will never
be disappointed.”
Currently Selected:
Romans 9: CEVDCI
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Romans 9
9
1I speak HaEmes in Moshiach, I do not speak sheker, my matzpun (conscience) bearing me eidus (witness) in the Ruach HaKodesh,
2That there is great agmat nefesh to me and unceasing anguish in my heart.
3For I could wish that my neshamah be put under cherem (ban of destruction), under Churban, and Onesh Gehinnom, cut off from Moshiach for the sake of my achim, my own kinsmen, my people and flesh and blood relatives,
4In as much as they are Bnei Yisroel: theirs is the Mishpat HaBanim Adoption, the Ma'amad HaBanim Standing as Sons, and the Kavod (glory) and the Shechinah (glorious presence of G-d) and the Beritot (covenants), the Matan Torah, the Avodas Kodesh (worship) and the Havtachot (promises);
5Theirs are the Avot (the Patriarchs), and from them came, in so far as his humanity is concerned, Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, al hakol hu HaElohim mam'vorach l'Olam va'ed. Omein.
6But it is not as though the Dvar Hashem has failed. For not all those descended from Yisroel are truly redeemed Yisroel [of the eschatological Geulah Redemption].
7Nor is it as though all the banim of K'lal Yisroel are the ZERA of Avraham Avinu, but [as it is written], BEYITZCHAK YIKARE L'CHA ZERA (In Yitzchak shall your seed be called, named, summoned).#9:7 Gn 21:12
8That is, it is not the Bnei habasar (old humanity without hitkhadshut) who are the Bnei HaElohim (children of G-d) but the Bnei HaHavtachah (children of the promise) who are reckoned as ZERA (seed, children, including the right of the heir in relation to the father).
9For this word is one of havtachah (promise): KA'ET SHOV ASHUV UL'SARAH BEN (About this time I will come and Sarah shall have a son).#9:9 Gn 18:10,14
10Not only so, but also in the case of Rivkah (Isaacʼs wife) who conceived by the one act of sexual intercourse with Yitzchak Avinu.
11For when they were not yet born nor had they done any mitzvah or averah, in order that the etzah (wisdom) of the tochnit Hashem (purposeful and willed plan of G-d)#9:11 Ro 8:28 should stand in terms of bechirah (divine election, selection, choosing),
12Not from#9:12 zokheh-earning mitzvos but from the One who makes the kri'ah (divine summons),#9:12 Ro 8:30 it was said to her, RAV YA'AVOD TZA'IR (the elder will serve the younger),#9:12 Gn 25:23
13As it is written, VA'OHAV ES YA'AKOV V'ES ESAV SANEITI (Ya'akov have I loved, but Esau have I hated).#9:13 Mal 1:2-3
14What then shall we say? There is no avla (injustice) with G-d, is there? Chas v'shalom!
15For to Moshe Rabbeinu Hashem says, V'CHANNOTI ES ASHER ACHON V'RICHAMETTI ES ASHER ARACHEM (I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion).#9:15 Ex 33:19
16So then, it is not a matter of the one who wills or the one who runs. It is a matter of the YAD HASHEM HACHANINAH (the hand of the G-d of gracious, free mercy).
17For the Kitvei Hakodesh says to Pharaoh, BA'AVUR ZOT HE'EMADTICHA BA'AVUR HAROTECHA ES KOCHI ULEMA'AN SAPER SHMI BECHOL HA'ARETZ (For this purpose I raised you up, in order that I might demonstrate in you my power and in order that my Name might be proclaimed in all the earth).#9:17 Ex 9:16
18So then, to whom Hashem wills Hashem shows chaninah (mercy, free grace), but whom Hashem wills he hardens.#9:18 that is, makes unresponsive or more mired down in KESHI (stubbornness, hardness); Dt 9:27
19You will say to me, Then why does Hashem still find fault? For who has resisted His will?
20On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to answer back to G-d? VEYETZER AMAR LEYOTZRO (Can the pot say to the potter),#9:20 Isa 29:16 Why have you made me thus?
21Or does the potter not have the right over the clay#9:21 Jer 18:6 to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
22But what if naniach (supposing) Hashem, willing to demonstrate His Charon Af Hashem (burning anger of G-d) and to make known His ko'ach (power),#9:22 1:16,18 put up with and endured with savlanut (patience) vessels which are objects of G-dʼs Charon Af (burning anger), objects made ready for Churban,#9:22 Ro 9:3
23And in order that He might make known the wealth of His kavod (glory) on vessels which are objects of Hashemʼs chaninah (mercy, free grace) which He prepared beforehand for kavod?#9:23 Ro 8:29-30
24By which I mean us, whom also He called, not only from the Yehudim but also from the non-Jews,
25As it says in Hoshea, V'AMARTI L'LO AMMI AMI ATAH (And I will call the “not my people” my people),#9:25 Hos 2:23 [2:25] and the “not loved” loved;
26And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” there they shall be called Bnei EL CHAI#9:26 Hos 2:1 (sons of the living G-d).
27Yeshayah proclaims concerning Yisroel, Even if the number of the Bnei Yisroel are as the sand of the sea, only the She'erit (Remnant) will return (be saved),
28For Hashem will complete and cut short and will perform His Word on the earth.#9:28 Isa 10:22-23
29And as Yeshayah said beforehand, Except Adonoi Tz'vaot had left us SARID KIM'AT#9:29 Ro 9:7 (some survivors), we would have become like S'dom and we would have been the same as Amora.#9:29 Isa 1:9
30What then shall we say? That Goyim who do not pursue Tzidkot (righteousness) have attained Tzidkot which is Tzidkot through emunah,
31Whereas Yisroel pursuing a#9:31 supposed zokheh-earning Tzidkat Torah did not arrive at that Torah?
32Why so? Because it was not on the mekor (basis) of emunah but on the mekor (basis) of#9:32 zokheh-earning ma'asim#9:32 Ro 3:20,28; 4:2,6; 9:11-12 (works). They have stumbled over the EVEN NEGEF (Stone of Stumbling),
33As it is written, Hinei, I place in Tziyon a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and he who believes in Me shall not be put to shame.#9:32-33 Isa 8:14; 28:16
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
FOURTH EDITION © Artists For Israel Intl Inc., 2002-2011, 2021.