Romans 9
9
God and his People
1I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying 2when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart 3for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ. 4#Ex 4.22They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants#9.4 covenants; some manuscripts have covenant. with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises; 5they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised for ever!#9.5 May God, who rules over all, be praised for ever!; or And may he, who is God ruling over all, be praised for ever! Amen.
6I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God. 7#Gen 21.12Nor are all Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, “It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you.” 8This means that the children born in the usual way#9.8 children born in the usual way: This refers to the descendants Abraham had through Ishmael, his son by Hagar (see Gal 4.22–23). are not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God's promise are regarded as the true descendants. 9#Gen 18.10For God's promise was made in these words: “At the right time#9.9 At the right time; or At this time next year. I will come back, and Sarah will have a son.”
10And this is not all. For Rebecca's two sons had the same father, our ancestor Isaac. 11-12#Gen 25.23But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.” He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done. 13#Mal 1.2–3As the scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”
14Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all. 15#Ex 33.19For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish.” 16So then, everything depends, not on what human beings want or do, but only on God's mercy. 17#Ex 9.16 (LXX)For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, “I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world.” 18So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.
God's Anger and Mercy
19But one of you will say to me, “If this is so, how can God find fault with anyone? Who can resist God's will?” 20#Is 29.16; 45.9But who are you, my friend, to answer God back? A clay pot does not ask the man who made it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21After all, the man who makes the pots has the right to use the clay as he wishes, and to make two pots from the same lump of clay, one for special occasions and the other for ordinary use.
22And the same is true of what God has done. He wanted to show his anger and to make his power known. But he was very patient in enduring those who were the objects of his anger, who were doomed to destruction. 23And he also wanted to reveal his abundant glory, which was poured out on us who are the objects of his mercy, those of us whom he has prepared to receive his glory. 24For we are the people he called, not only from among the Jews but also from among the Gentiles. 25#Hos 2.23This is what he says in the book of Hosea:
“The people who were not mine
I will call ‘My People’.
The nation that I did not love
I will call ‘My Beloved’.
26 #
Hos 1.10
And in the very place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called the children of the living God.”
27 #
Is 10.22–23 (LXX) And Isaiah exclaims about Israel: “Even if the people of Israel are as many as the grains of sand by the sea, yet only a few of them will be saved; 28for the Lord will quickly settle his full account with the world.” 29#Is 1.9 (LXX)It is as Isaiah had said before, “If the Lord Almighty had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”
Paul's Prayer for Israel
30So we say that the Gentiles, who were not trying to put themselves right with God, were put right with him through faith; 31while God's people, who were seeking a law that would put them right with God, did not find it. 32And why not? Because they did not depend on faith but on what they did. And so they stumbled over the “stumbling stone” 33#Is 28.16 (LXX)that the scripture speaks of:
“Look, I place in Zion a stone
that will make people stumble,
a rock that will make them fall.
But whoever believes in him will not be disappointed.”
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Romans 9: GNBDK
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Good News Bible with Deuterocanonicals/Apocrypha. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.
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
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THE ORTHODOX JEWISH BIBLE
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