9:1 Truth I say in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing testimony with me in the Holy Spirit,

9:2 that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart --

9:3 for I was wishing, I myself, to be anathema from the Christ -- for my brethren, my kindred, according to the flesh,

9:4 who are Israelites, whose [is] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises,

9:5 whose [are] the fathers, and of whom [is] the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen.

9:6 And it is not possible that the word of God hath failed; for not all who [are] of Israel are these Israel;

9:7 nor because they are seed of Abraham [are] all children, but -- `in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;`

9:8 that is, the children of the flesh -- these [are] not children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed;

9:9 for the word of promise [is] this; `According to this time I will come, and there shall be to Sarah a son.`

9:10 And not only [so], but also Rebecca, having conceived by one -- Isaac our father --

9:11 (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 --

9:12 `The greater shall serve the less;`

9:13 according as it hath been written, `Jacob I did love, and Esau I did hate.`

9:14 What, then, shall we say? unrighteousness [is] with God? let it not be!

9:15 for to Moses He saith, `I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion;`

9:16 so, then -- not of him who is willing, nor of him who is running, but of God who is doing kindness:

9:17 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;`

9:18 so, then, to whom He willeth, He doth kindness, and to whom He willeth, He doth harden.

9:19 Thou wilt say, then, to me, `Why yet doth He find fault? for His counsel who hath resisted?`

9:20 nay, but, O man, who art thou that art answering again to God? shall the thing formed say to Him who did form [it], Why me didst thou make thus?

9:21 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?

9:22 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,

9:23 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 --

9:24 not only out of Jews, but also out of nations,

9:25 as also in Hosea He saith, `I will call what [is] not My people -- My people; and her not beloved -- Beloved,

9:26 and it shall be -- in the place where it was said to them, Ye [are] not My people; there they shall be called sons of the living God.`

9:27 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;

9:28 for a matter He is finishing, and is cutting short in righteousness, because a matter cut short will the Lord do upon the land.

9:29 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.`

9:30 What, then, shall we say? that nations who are not pursuing righteousness did attain to righteousness, and righteousness that [is] of faith,

9:31 and Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, at a law of righteousness did not arrive;

9:32 wherefore? because -- not by faith, but as by works of law; for they did stumble at the stone of stumbling,