¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God;^(A) once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

¹⁶ Let us then approach^(A) God’s throne of grace with confidence,^(B) so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

⁹ Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.^[a](A)

¹⁰ “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted.^(B) In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’^(C)

²⁵ As he says in Hosea:

²⁶ and,

¹³ Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor^(A) and a violent man, I was shown mercy^(B) because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.^(C)

Concerning the Unmarried

²⁵ Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord,^(A) but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy^(B) is trustworthy.

³⁰ Just as you who were at one time disobedient^(A) to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience,

⁶ And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works;^(A) if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

⁷ What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain.^(B) The elect among them did, but the others were hardened,^(C)