²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.^(A)

⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;^(A)

Israel’s Rejection Is Not Final

11 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.^(A)

⁴ They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;^(A)

God’s Promise Realized through Faith

¹³ For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith.^{(A) 14} For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. ¹⁵ For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, neither is there transgression.^(B)

¹⁶ For this reason the promise depends on faith, in order that it may rest on grace, so that it may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (who is the father of all of us,^{(C) 17} as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”), in the presence of the God in whom he believed,^[a] who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.^{(D) 18} Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So shall your descendants be.”

³ “I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, educated strictly according to our ancestral law, being zealous for God, just as all of you are today.^(A)

³³ They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?”^(A)

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.^{(B) 35} The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever.^{(C) 36} So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. ³⁷ I know that you are descendants of Abraham, yet you look for an opportunity to kill me because there is no place in you for my word. ³⁸ I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.”^[a](D)

Jesus and Abraham

³⁹ They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you are Abraham’s children, you would do^[b] what Abraham did,^(E)

⁷ Did you not, O our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of your friend Abraham?^(A)

³ So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: How long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go, so that they may serve me.^(A)

The Seventh Plague: Thunder and Hail

¹³ Then the Lord said to Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and present yourself before Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go, so that they may serve me.^(A)