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Romans 9
New International Version
Romans 9
New International Version
Paul’s Anguish Over Israel
9 I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying,(A) my conscience confirms(B) it through the Holy Spirit— 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself(C) were cursed(D) and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people,(E) those of my own race,(F) 4 the people of Israel.(G) Theirs is the adoption to sonship;(H) theirs the divine glory,(I) the covenants,(J) the receiving of the law,(K) the temple worship(L) and the promises.(M) 5 Theirs are the patriarchs,(N) and from them is traced the human ancestry of the Messiah,(O) who is God over all,(P) forever praised Amen.
God’s Sovereign Choice
6 It is not as though God’s word(R) had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.(S) 7 Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”[b](T) 8 In other words, it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children,(U) but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.(V) 9 For this was how the promise was stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”[c](W)
10 Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.(X) 11 Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad(Y)—in order that God’s purpose(Z) in election might stand: 12 not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”[d](AA) 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[e](AB)
14 What then shall we say?(AC) Is God unjust? Not at all!(AD) 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.”[f](AE)
16 It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.(AF) 17 For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”[g](AG) 18 Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.(AH)
19 One of you will say to me:(AI) “Then why does God still blame us?(AJ) For who is able to resist his will?”(AK) 20 But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?(AL) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,(AM) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”[h](AN) 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?(AO)
22 What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience(AP) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?(AQ) 23 What if he did this to make the riches of his glory(AR) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory(AS)— 24 even us, whom he also called,(AT) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?(AU) 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,”[i](AV)
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.’”[j](AW)
27 Isaiah cries out concerning Israel:
“Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea,(AX)
only the remnant will be saved.(AY)
28 For the Lord will carry out
his sentence on earth with speed and finality.”[k](AZ)
29 It is just as Isaiah said previously:
“Unless the Lord Almighty(BA)
had left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
we would have been like Gomorrah.”[l](BB)
Israel’s Unbelief
30 What then shall we say?(BC) That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith;(BD) 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness,(BE) have not attained their goal.(BF) 32 Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone.(BG) 33 As it is written:
Footnotes
- Romans 9:5 Or Messiah, who is over all. God be forever praised! Or Messiah. God who is over all be forever praised!
- Romans 9:7 Gen. 21:12
- Romans 9:9 Gen. 18:10,14
- Romans 9:12 Gen. 25:23
- Romans 9:13 Mal. 1:2,3
- Romans 9:15 Exodus 33:19
- Romans 9:17 Exodus 9:16
- Romans 9:20 Isaiah 29:16; 45:9
- Romans 9:25 Hosea 2:23
- Romans 9:26 Hosea 1:10
- Romans 9:28 Isaiah 10:22,23 (see Septuagint)
- Romans 9:29 Isaiah 1:9
- Romans 9:33 Isaiah 8:14; 28:16
Romans 9
The Message
Romans 9
The Message
God Is Calling His People
9 1-5 At the same time, you need to know that I carry with me at all times a huge sorrow. It’s an enormous pain deep within me, and I’m never free of it. I’m not exaggerating—Christ and the Holy Spirit are my witnesses. It’s the Israelites . . . If there were any way I could be cursed by the Messiah so they could be blessed by him, I’d do it in a minute. They’re my family. I grew up with them. They had everything going for them—family, glory, covenants, revelation, worship, promises, to say nothing of being the race that produced the Messiah, the Christ, who is God over everything, always. Oh, yes!
6-9 Don’t suppose for a moment, though, that God’s Word has malfunctioned in some way or other. The problem goes back a long way. From the outset, not all Israelites of the flesh were Israelites of the spirit. It wasn’t Abraham’s sperm that gave identity here, but God’s promise. Remember how it was put: “Your family will be defined by Isaac”? That means that Israelite identity was never racially determined by sexual transmission, but it was God-determined by promise. Remember that promise, “When I come back next year at this time, Sarah will have a son”?
10-13 And that’s not the only time. To Rebecca, also, a promise was made that took priority over genetics. When she became pregnant by our one-of-a-kind ancestor, Isaac, and her babies were still innocent in the womb—incapable of good or bad—she received a special assurance from God. What God did in this case made it perfectly plain that his purpose is not a hit-or-miss thing dependent on what we do or don’t do, but a sure thing determined by his decision, flowing steadily from his initiative. God told Rebecca, “The firstborn of your twins will take second place.” Later that was turned into a stark epigram: “I loved Jacob; I hated Esau.”
14-18 Is that grounds for complaining that God is unfair? Not so fast, please. God told Moses, “I’m in charge of mercy. I’m in charge of compassion.” Compassion doesn’t originate in our bleeding hearts or moral sweat, but in God’s mercy. The same point was made when God said to Pharaoh, “I picked you as a bit player in this drama of my salvation power.” All we’re saying is that God has the first word, initiating the action in which we play our part for better or worse.
19 Are you going to object, “So how can God blame us for anything since he’s in charge of everything? If the big decisions are already made, what say do we have in it?”
20-33 Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn’t talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, “Why did you shape me like this?” Isn’t it obvious that a potter has a perfect right to shape one lump of clay into a vase for holding flowers and another into a pot for cooking beans? If God needs one style of pottery especially designed to show his angry displeasure and another style carefully crafted to show his glorious goodness, isn’t that all right? Either or both happens to Jews, but it also happens to the other people. Hosea put it well:
I’ll call nobodies and make them somebodies;
I’ll call the unloved and make them beloved.
In the place where they yelled out, “You’re nobody!”
they’re calling you “God’s living children.”
Isaiah maintained this same emphasis:
If each grain of sand on the seashore were numbered
and the sum labeled “chosen of God,”
They’d be numbers still, not names;
salvation comes by personal selection.
God doesn’t count us; he calls us by name.
Arithmetic is not his focus.
Isaiah had looked ahead and spoken the truth:
If our powerful God
had not provided us a legacy of living children,
We would have ended up like ghost towns,
like Sodom and Gomorrah.
How can we sum this up? All those people who didn’t seem interested in what God was doing actually embraced what God was doing as he straightened out their lives. And Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They were absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their “God projects” that they didn’t notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us the metaphor for pulling this together:
Careful! I’ve put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion,
a stone you can’t get around.
But the stone is me! If you’re looking for me,
you’ll find me on the way, not in the way.
Romans 9
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
Romans 9
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition
9 I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost:
2 That I have great sadness, and continual sorrow in my heart.
3 For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh,
4 Who are Israelites, to whom belongeth the adoption as of children, and the glory, and the testament, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises:
5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all things, God blessed for ever. Amen.
6 Not as though the word of God hath miscarried. For all are not Israelites that are of Israel:
7 Neither are all they that are the seed of Abraham, children; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called:
8 That is to say, not they that are the children of the flesh, are the children of God; but they, that are the children of the promise, are accounted for the seed.
9 For this is the word of promise: According to this time will I come; and Sara shall have a son.
10 And not only she. But when Rebecca also had conceived at once, of Isaac our father.
11 For when the children were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil (that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand,)
12 Not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written: Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy; and I will shew mercy to whom I will shew mercy.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith to Pharao: To this purpose have I raised thee, that I may shew my power in thee, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will; and whom he will, he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say therefore to me: Why doth he then find fault? for who resisteth his will?
20 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 Or 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 patience vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction,
23 That he might shew the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he hath prepared unto glory?
24 Even us, whom also he hath called, nor only of the Jews, but also of the Gentiles.
25 As in Osee he saith: I will call that which was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved; and her that had not obtained mercy, one that hath obtained mercy.
26 And it shall be, in the place where it was said unto them, You are not my people; there they shall be called the sons of the living God.
27 And Isaias crieth out concerning Israel: If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.
28 For he shall finish his word, and cut it short in justice; because a short word shall the Lord make upon the earth.
29 And as Isaias foretold: Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been made as Sodom, and we had been like unto Gomorrha.
30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who followed not after justice, have attained to justice, even the justice that is of faith.
31 But Israel, by following after the law of justice, is not come unto the law of justice.
32 Why so? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were of works. For they stumbled at the stumblingstone.
33 As it is written: Behold I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and a rock of scandal; and whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded.
Romans 9
Expanded Bible
Romans 9
Expanded Bible
God and the Jewish People
9 I am telling you the truth ·as a follower of Christ [or with Christ as my witness; L in Christ]; I do not lie. My conscience is ·ruled by [or guided by] the Holy Spirit, and it ·tells [testifies to] me I am not lying. 2 I have great sorrow and ·always feel much sadness [unceasing/constant anguish]. 3 [L For] I would even wish that I were cursed and cut off from ·Christ [or the Messiah] ·if that would help [for the sake of] my Jewish brothers and sisters, my ·people [countrymen; L relatives according to the flesh]. 4 They are the people of Israel, God’s ·chosen [L adopted] children. They ·have seen [or have] the glory of God, and they have the ·agreements that God made between himself and his people [L covenants]. God gave them the law of Moses and the ·right way of worship [or temple worship] and his promises. 5 ·They are the descendants of our great ancestors [L They have the fathers/patriarchs], and ·they are the earthly family into which Christ was born [or from their descendants the Messiah came], ·who is God over all. Praise him forever [or May God, who is over all, be praised forever]! Amen.
6 It is not that ·God failed to keep his promise to them [L God’s word failed]. ·But only some of the people of Israel are truly God’s people [L Because not all those (descended) from Israel are Israel], 7 ·and only some of Abraham’s descendants are true children of Abraham [L nor are all of Abraham’s seed/descendants (true) children]. But God said to Abraham: “·The descendants I promised you will be from Isaac [or Through Isaac your descendants will carry on your name; Gen. 21:12].” 8 This means that ·not all of Abraham’s descendants [L it is not the children of the flesh who] are God’s true children. [L But; Rather] ·Abraham’s true children [L Those counted as Abraham’s descendants/seed] are ·those who become God’s children because of the promise God made to Abraham [L the children of the promise]. 9 God’s promise to Abraham was this: “·At the right time [At the appointed time; or About this time next year] I will return, and Sarah will have a son [Gen. 18:10, 14].” 10 And that is not all. Rebekah’s sons ·had the same father, [or were conceived at the same time by] our ·father [ancestor; forefather] Isaac.
14 So what should we say about this? Is God ·unfair [unjust]? ·In no way [Absolutely not!; May it never be!; 7:13]. 15 [L For] God said to Moses, “I will show ·kindness [mercy] to anyone to whom I want to show ·kindness [mercy], and I will show ·compassion [pity] to anyone to whom I want to show ·compassion [pity; Ex. 33:19].” 16 So God’s choice does not depend on ·what people want [human desire; or human will] or ·try to do [effort; exertion], but on God’s ·mercy [kindness]. 17 The Scripture says to ·the king of Egypt [L Pharaoh]: “I ·made you king [L raised you up] for this reason: to show my power in you so that my name will be ·talked about [proclaimed] in all the earth [Ex. 9:16].” 18 So God shows mercy where he wants to show mercy, and he ·makes stubborn [hardens] the people he wants to ·make stubborn [harden].
19 So one of you will ask me: “Then why does God ·blame us for our sins [L blame; find fault]? Who can ·fight [resist; oppose] his will?” 20 ·You are only human, and human beings have no right to question God [L Who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God?]. ·An object [or A thing molded] should not ask the ·person who made it [molder], “Why did you make me like this? [Is. 29:16; 45:9]” 21 ·The potter can make anything he wants to make [L Doesn’t the potter have authority over the clay?]. He can use the same ·clay [L lump] to make one ·thing [vessel; pot] for ·special [honorable] use and another thing for ·daily [common; dishonorable] use.
22 ·It is the same way with God. He [L What if he…?] wanted to show his ·anger [wrath] and to let people see his power. But he ·patiently stayed with [endured with great patience] those ·people he was angry with [L vessels/objects of wrath]—people who were ·made ready [prepared] to be destroyed. 23 He waited with patience so that he could make known ·his rich glory [the riches of his glory] to the ·people who receive his [L vessels/objects of] mercy. He has prepared these people ·to have his glory [to experience his glory; L for glory], 24 and we are those people whom God called. He called us not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles. 25 As ·the Scripture [or God] says in Hosea:
“I will ·say, ‘You are my people’ [call them ‘my people’]
to those who were not my people.
And I will ·show my love [call her ‘beloved’]
to ·those people [her] I did not love [Hos. 2:1, 23; C in Hosea, a reference to apostate Israel; here applied to the Gentiles].”
26 “And in the same place where they were called,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
‘children of the living God [Hos. 1:10].’”
27 And Isaiah cries out about Israel:
“[L Though] The ·people [L children; sons] of Israel are numbered
like the grains of sand ·by [or of] the sea.
But only ·a few of them [the remnant] will be saved,
28 because the Lord will quickly and completely ·punish the people [carry out/execute his sentence; settle his account] on the earth [Is. 10:22–23].”
29 It is as Isaiah said:
“If the Lord ·All-Powerful [of Hosts; of Heaven’s Armies]
had not ·allowed a few of our descendants to live [left us offspring/seed],
We would have become like Sodom
and would resemble Gomorrah [Is. 1:9; C OT cities destroyed by God because of their wickedness; Gen. 19].”
30 ·So what does all this mean [L What, then, shall we say]? Those who are Gentiles ·were not trying to make themselves right with God [L did not pursue righteousness], but they ·were made right with God [obtained righteousness] ·because of their faith [L —that is, a righteousness that is by faith]. 31 The people of Israel tried to ·follow [pursue] a law ·to make themselves right with God [L of righteousness]. But they did not ·succeed [reach/attain it], 32 [L Why?] because they tried to make themselves right by ·the things they did [works] instead of ·trusting in God to make them right [L by faith]. They stumbled over the stone that causes people to stumble. 33 As it is written in the Scripture:
“[L Look; T Behold] I will put in ·Jerusalem [L Zion; C a poetic term for Jerusalem and symbolizing the nation Israel] a stone that causes people to stumble,
a rock that makes them fall [Is. 8:14].
Anyone who ·trusts [believes; has faith] in him will never be ·disappointed [put to shame; disgraced; Is. 28:16].”
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The Message (MSG)
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Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition (DRA)
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Expanded Bible (EXB)
The Expanded Bible, Copyright © 2011 Thomas Nelson Inc. All rights reserved.