Romans 9
9
Paul’s Continual Sorrow for Israel
1 I am saying the truth in Christ,* I am not speaking falsely; my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that my sorrow is great and there is continual pain in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the divine service, and the promises; 5 to whom belong the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever.** Amen.
The Sovereign Election Of God
6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed.* For not all the ones who are descended from Israel are Israel.* 7 Nor are they all children because they are offspring of Abraham, but “In Isaac will your offspring be called.”* 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are considered as offspring. 9 For the word of the promise is this: “At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”* 10 And not only this, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, Isaac, our father. 11 For although the children,* having not yet been born, nor having done anything good or evil—so that the promise of God according to election might continue, 12 not of works but of the One who calls—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”* 13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”*
14 What then shall we say? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses,
“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”*
16 So then, it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose,* I have raised you up, so that I might show My power in you, and so that My name might be announced in all the earth.”* 18 So then, He* has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
19 You will say to me, “Then why does He still find fault? For who has resisted* His will?” 20 On the contrary, O man, who are you, who replies against God? Will the thing formed say to the One who formed it, “Why did you make me in this way”? 21 Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honour, and another for dishonour? 22 But what if God, willing to show the wrath and to make known His power, bore with much patience vessels of wrath, prepared* for destruction. 23 And He did so,* in order to make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, which He has prepared in advance for glory, 24 even us whom He has called, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles. 25 As He also says in Hosea,
“I will call that which was not My people, ‘My people;’
and her who was not loved, ‘Loved.’*
26 “And it will be in the place where it was stated to them,
‘You are not My people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”*
27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,
“Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved;
28 for the Lord will perform His word,*
bringing it to finality
and swiftly accomplishing it upon the earth.”**
29 And just as Isaiah foretold,
“Unless the Lord of armies had left us offspring,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have been like Gomorrah.”*
Gentile's Faith and Israel’s Unbelief
30 What then shall we say? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness—but the righteousness that is by faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain that law. 32 For what reason? Because they pursued it not by faith, but as if it were by works.** They stumbled over the stumbling stone,* 33 just as it is written:
“Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offence;
and the one who believes in Him will not be disgraced.”*
Notes
1 Three ancient Greek manuscripts insert Jesus at this point
5 Greek to the ages
5 Or who is over all, God blessed forever
6 Or taken none effect / become inefficient
6 Greek For not all the ones of Israel are these Israel
7 Quoted from Gen. 21:12
9 Greek At this time I will come, and there will be a son to Sarah
9 Quoted from Gen. 18:10
11 The noun children is contextually supplied to the text for clarification
12 Quoted from Gen. 25:23
13 Quoted from Mal. 1:2-3
15 Quoted from Ex. 33:19
17 Greek this very
17 Quoted from Ex. 9:16
18 One ancient Greek manuscript reads God
19 Or opposed
22 Or fitted
23 The finite clause He did so , with so acting as a pro-form, is contextually supplied to the text for clarification
25 Quoted from Hos. 2:23
26 Quoted from Hos. 1:10
28 Or work
28 Some ancient manuscripts read for He will execute a word/work, bringing it to finality and swiftly accomplishing it in righteousness, because the Lord will act a word/work in the whole world, in order to conform the text to the Septuagint of Is. 10:23
27-28 Quoted from Is. 10:22-23
29 Quoted from Is. 1:9
32 The reading in the Greek text is elliptical, expressed as: Because it was not by faith, but as by works
32 Some ancient manuscripts insert the genitive phrase of the Law
32 Greek stone of stumbling
33 Quoted from Is. 28:16
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Copyright © 2026 Michael Adeyemi Adegbola. This Scripture text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).
