罗马书 9
Chinese New Version (Simplified)
神拣选以色列人
9 我在基督里说的是实话，并没有撒谎，因为我的良心在圣灵里一同为我作证； 2 我大大忧愁，心里常常伤痛。 3 为我的同胞，就是我骨肉之亲，就算自己受咒诅，与基督隔绝，我也甘心。 4 他们是以色列人：嗣子的名分、荣耀、众约、律法、敬拜的礼仪和各样的应许，都是他们的。 5 蒙拣选的列祖也是他们的祖宗；按肉身来说，基督也是出自他们这一族。其实，他是在万有之上，永远受称颂的 神。阿们。
6 当然，这不是说 神的话落了空，因为出自以色列的，不都是以色列人； 7 也不因为他们是亚伯拉罕的后裔，就都成为他的儿女，只有“以撒生的，才可以称为你的后裔”， 8 这就是说，肉身生的儿女并不是 神的儿女，只有凭着应许生的儿女才算是后裔。 9 因为所应许的话是这样：“明年这个时候我要来，撒拉必定生一个儿子。” 10 不但如此，利百加也是这样：既然从一个人，就是从我们的祖宗以撒怀了孕， 11 双生子还没有生下来，善恶也没有行出来（为要坚定 神拣选人的旨意，不是由于行为，而是由于那呼召者）， 12 神就对她说：“将来大的要服事小的。” 13 正如经上所记的：
“我爱雅各，
却恶以扫。”
14 既是这样，我们可以说甚么呢？ 神不公平吗？绝对不会！ 15 因为他对摩西说：
“我要怜悯谁，就怜悯谁；
我要恩待谁，就恩待谁。”
16 这样看来，既不是出于人意，也不是由于人为（“人为”原文作“奔走”或“奔跑”），只在于那怜悯人的 神。 17 经上有话对法老说：“我把你兴起来，是要借着你显出我的大能，并且使我的名传遍全地。” 18 这样看来，他愿意怜悯谁就怜悯谁，愿意谁刚硬就使谁刚硬。
神显出忿怒又施行怜悯
19 这样，你会对我说：“那么他为甚么责怪人呢？有谁抗拒他的旨意呢？” 20 你这个人哪，你是谁，竟敢跟 神顶嘴呢？被造的怎么可以对造他的说：“你为甚么把我做成这个样子呢？” 21 陶匠难道没有权用同一团的泥，又做贵重的、又做卑贱的器皿吗？ 22 如果 神有意要显明他的忿怒，彰显他的大能，而多多容忍那可怒、预备遭毁灭的器皿， 23 为了要使他丰盛的荣耀，彰显在那蒙恩、早已预备要得荣耀的器皿上，这又有甚么不可呢？ 24 这器皿就是我们这些不但从犹太人中，也从外族人中蒙召的人。 25 就如 神在何西阿书上说的：
“我要称那不是我子民的为我的子民，
那不蒙爱的为蒙爱的；
26 从前在甚么地方对他们说：
你们不是我的子民，
将来就在那里称他们为永活 神的儿子。”
27 以赛亚指着以色列人大声说：“以色列子孙的数目虽然多如海沙，得救的不过是剩下的余数； 28 因为主必在地上迅速而彻底地成就他的话。” 29 又如以赛亚早已说过的：
“如果不是万军之主给我们存留后裔，
我们早就像所多玛
和蛾摩拉一样了。”
以色列人因为不信而绊倒
30 既是这样，我们还有甚么可说的呢？那不追求义的外族人却得了义，就是因信而得的义。 31 但以色列人追求律法的义（“律法的义”原文作“义的律法”），却达不到律法的要求。 32 这是甚么缘故呢？因为他们不凭信心，只靠行为。他们绊倒在那绊脚石上， 33 正如经上所记：
“看哪，我在锡安放了一块绊脚石，
是绊倒人的盘石；
信靠他的人，
必不致失望。”
Romans 9
Revised Standard Version
God’s Election of Israel
9 I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen by race. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; 5 to them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever.[a] Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his descendants; but “Through Isaac shall your descendants be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants. 9 For this is what the promise said, “About this time I will return and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call, 12 she was told, “The elder will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 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 it depends not upon man’s will or exertion, but upon God’s mercy. 17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills.
God’s Wrath and Mercy
19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, a man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me thus?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hose′a,
“Those who were not my people
I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved
I will call ‘my beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
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 a remnant of them will be saved; 28 for the Lord will execute his sentence upon the earth with rigor and dispatch.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of hosts had not left us children,
we would have fared like Sodom and been made like Gomor′rah.”
Israel’s Unbelief
30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, righteousness through faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued the righteousness which is based on law did not succeed in fulfilling that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it through faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone that will make men stumble,
a rock that will make them fall;
and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
Footnotes
- Romans 9:5 Or Christ, who is God over all, blessed for ever
Chinese New Version (CNV). Copyright © 1976, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2005 by Worldwide Bible Society.
Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.