18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.(A)

19 One of you will say to me:(B) “Then why does God still blame us?(C) For who is able to resist his will?”(D) 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?(E) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,(F) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[a](G) 21 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?(H)

22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience(I) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?(J) 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory(K) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory(L) 24 even us, whom he also called,(M) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?(N) 25 As he says in Hosea:

“I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
    and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”[b](O)

26 and,

“In the very place where it was said to them,
    ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”[c](P)

27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:

“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,(Q)
    only the remnant will be saved.(R)
28 For the Lord will carry out
    his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”[d](S)

29 It is just as Isaiah said previously:

“Unless the Lord Almighty(T)
    had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
    we would have been like Gomorrah.”[e](U)

Israel’s Unbelief

30 What then shall we say?(V) That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;(W) 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness,(X) have not attained their goal.(Y) 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.(Z) 33 As it is written:

“See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall,
    and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.”[f](AA)

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16; 45:9
  2. Romans 9:25 Hosea 2:23
  3. Romans 9:26 Hosea 1:10
  4. Romans 9:28 Isaiah 10:22,23 (see Septuagint)
  5. Romans 9:29 Isaiah 1:9
  6. Romans 9:33 Isaiah 8:14; 28:16

18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

22 What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.

27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

28 For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.

30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

32 Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

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