Romans 9
Worldwide English (New Testament)
9 What I say is true and Christ knows it is. I do not tell a lie. My heart tells me it is true. And the Holy Spirit knows this.
2 I am very sad. I am always troubled. 3I could almost wish I were taken away from Christ for the sake of my brothers, the people of my own nation.
3 They are Jews. God gave them the right to be his sons. He showed them how great he is. He made agreements with them. He gave them the law. He told them how to worship him. He gave them the promises.
4 The great men were their fathers. Christ was born a Jew. He is God over all. Praise him for ever! Yes, he is!
5 God will do what he said he would do. Not all who are Jews belong to the real Israel.
6 Not all the people in Abraham's family are his children. But the holy writings say, `It is Isaac's family who will be called your family.'
7 This means that not all who were born in Abraham's family are God's children. God promised Abraham a son [Isaac]. His children [the Jews] are the ones that God called Abraham's true family.
8 For this is what God promised, `About this time next year I will come and Sarah shall have a son.'
9 And that is not all. Rebecca also had children. Their father was Isaac, our father.
11 When the children were not yet born, they had done nothing good or bad. God chooses the people he wants. He does not choose people because of what they have done. He chooses people who will answer his call. So he said to Rebecca, `The older one will be a slave of the younger one.'
12 The holy writings also say, `I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.'
13 So what shall we say? Does God do what is not right? No, never!
14 He says to Moses, `I will be kind to a person if I choose to be kind to him. I will share in the suffering of others if I choose to be sorry for them.'
15 God is not kind to a person because the person wants God to be kind to him. God is not kind to him because the person runs to him to ask him for help. God is kind because he chooses to be kind.
16 In the holy writings it says to Pharaoh, `That is why I made you live. I wanted to show my power through you. I wanted people to know about me all over the earth.'
17 So God is kind to any person if he wants to be kind to him. And God makes a man's heart hard if he wants to do that.
18 So you will ask me, `Why does God still blame us? Who can fight against what God has planned?'
19 But you are only a man. Will you tell God what to do? Can the pot say to the man who made it, `Why did you make me like this?'
20 The person who makes pots has power over the mud. He can make two different pots out of one pile of mud. One pot will be fine and another will not be fine. Can the potter not make them so?
21 God has a right to be very angry if he wants to be. He has the right to show his power. God was very angry with some people who deserved to die. And yet he waited a long time before he did anything to them.
22 He did it to show how very great he is. He was kind to some people. He planned for them to be made great.
23 That means he also called us. He called not only those who are Jews, but also those who are not Jews.
24 In the book written long ago by the prophet Hosea, God says `They were not my people. But I will call them "my people". I did not love her, but I will call her "the one I love."
25 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." '
26 Isaiah the prophet of God said long ago about Israel, `Even if the people of Israel are as many as the sand by the sea, only some of them will be saved.
27 The Lord will do what he said he will do on the earth. He will do it all and do it soon.'
28 And Isaiah also said, `The Lord who has power, left some of our children. If he had not, we would have been like Sodom. We would have been destroyed like Gomorrah.'
29 So what shall we say? The people who are not Jews have been put right with God. They did nothing to make themselves right with God. But they were put right because they believed God.
30 But the Jews tried to obey the law that could make them good people. But they did not obey it all.
31 Why was that? They did not trust in God. They only trusted in doing the things of the law. They therefore hit their feet on the stone on which men hit their feet.
32 That is what the holy writings say, `I put in Zion a stone on which people will hit their feet. It is a rock that will make them fall down. Anyone who believes in him will not be ashamed.'
罗马书 9
Chinese New Version (Traditional)
神揀選以色列人
9 我在基督裡說的是實話，並沒有撒謊，因為我的良心在聖靈裡一同為我作證； 2 我大大憂愁，心裡常常傷痛。 3 為我的同胞，就是我骨肉之親，就算自己受咒詛，與基督隔絕，我也甘心。 4 他們是以色列人：嗣子的名分、榮耀、眾約、律法、敬拜的禮儀和各樣的應許，都是他們的。 5 蒙揀選的列祖也是他們的祖宗；按肉身來說，基督也是出自他們這一族。其實，他是在萬有之上，永遠受稱頌的 神。阿們。
6 當然，這不是說 神的話落了空，因為出自以色列的，不都是以色列人； 7 也不因為他們是亞伯拉罕的後裔，就都成為他的兒女，只有“以撒生的，才可以稱為你的後裔”， 8 這就是說，肉身生的兒女並不是 神的兒女，只有憑著應許生的兒女才算是後裔。 9 因為所應許的話是這樣：“明年這個時候我要來，撒拉必定生一個兒子。” 10 不但如此，利百加也是這樣：既然從一個人，就是從我們的祖宗以撒懷了孕， 11 雙生子還沒有生下來，善惡也沒有行出來（為要堅定 神揀選人的旨意，不是由於行為，而是由於那呼召者）， 12 神就對她說：“將來大的要服事小的。” 13 正如經上所記的：
“我愛雅各，
卻惡以掃。”
14 既是這樣，我們可以說甚麼呢？ 神不公平嗎？絕對不會！ 15 因為他對摩西說：
“我要憐憫誰，就憐憫誰；
我要恩待誰，就恩待誰。”
16 這樣看來，既不是出於人意，也不是由於人為（“人為”原文作“奔走”或“奔跑”），只在於那憐憫人的 神。 17 經上有話對法老說：“我把你興起來，是要藉著你顯出我的大能，並且使我的名傳遍全地。” 18 這樣看來，他願意憐憫誰就憐憫誰，願意誰剛硬就使誰剛硬。
神顯出忿怒又施行憐憫
19 這樣，你會對我說：“那麼他為甚麼責怪人呢？有誰抗拒他的旨意呢？” 20 你這個人哪，你是誰，竟敢跟 神頂嘴呢？被造的怎麼可以對造他的說：“你為甚麼把我做成這個樣子呢？” 21 陶匠難道沒有權用同一團的泥，又做貴重的、又做卑賤的器皿嗎？ 22 如果 神有意要顯明他的忿怒，彰顯他的大能，而多多容忍那可怒、預備遭毀滅的器皿， 23 為了要使他豐盛的榮耀，彰顯在那蒙恩、早已預備要得榮耀的器皿上，這又有甚麼不可呢？ 24 這器皿就是我們這些不但從猶太人中，也從外族人中蒙召的人。 25 就如 神在何西阿書上說的：
“我要稱那不是我子民的為我的子民，
那不蒙愛的為蒙愛的；
26 從前在甚麼地方對他們說：
你們不是我的子民，
將來就在那裡稱他們為永活 神的兒子。”
27 以賽亞指著以色列人大聲說：“以色列子孫的數目雖然多如海沙，得救的不過是剩下的餘數； 28 因為主必在地上迅速而徹底地成就他的話。” 29 又如以賽亞早已說過的：
“如果不是萬軍之主給我們存留後裔，
我們早就像所多瑪
和蛾摩拉一樣了。”
以色列人因為不信而絆倒
30 既是這樣，我們還有甚麼可說的呢？那不追求義的外族人卻得了義，就是因信而得的義。 31 但以色列人追求律法的義（“律法的義”原文作“義的律法”），卻達不到律法的要求。 32 這是甚麼緣故呢？因為他們不憑信心，只靠行為。他們絆倒在那絆腳石上， 33 正如經上所記：
“看哪，我在錫安放了一塊絆腳石，
是絆倒人的磐石；
信靠他的人，
必不致失望。”
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Chinese New Version (CNV). Copyright © 1976, 1992, 1999, 2001, 2005 by Worldwide Bible Society.
