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.'
Romans 9
Evangelical Heritage Version
The Blessings of the True Israel
9 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying—my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit 2 that I have great sorrow and continuous pain in my heart. 3 For I almost wish that I myself could be cursed and separated from Christ in place of my brothers, my relatives according to the flesh, 4 those who are Israelites. Theirs are the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, came the Christ, who is God over all, eternally blessed. Amen.
6 This does not mean that God’s word has failed, because not all who are descended from Israel are really Israel, 7 and not all who are descended from Abraham are really his children. On the contrary, “Your line of descent will be traced through Isaac.”[a] 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are counted as his descendants. 9 For this is what the promise said: “I will arrive at this set time, and Sarah will have a son.”[b]
God’s Choice Is Based on His Mercy
10 Not only that, but Rebekah also had children by one man, our forefather, Isaac. 11 Even before the twins were born or did anything good or bad, in order that God’s purpose in election might continue— 12 not by works but because of him who calls us—it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger.”[c] 13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”[d]
14 What will we say then? Does this mean that God is unjust? Absolutely not! 15 For God says to Moses:
I will show mercy to whom I show mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.[e]
16 So then, it does not depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.
17 Indeed, the Scripture says in regard to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to stand, that I may demonstrate my power in how I deal with you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”[f] 18 So then, God shows mercy to whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
19 Then you will say to me, “Why does God still find fault? For who has ever succeeded in resisting his will?” 20 But who are you, a mere human being, to talk back to God? Shall the thing that is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” No. 21 Doesn’t the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay one pot for special use and another for ordinary use?
22 What if God, although he wanted to demonstrate his wrath and make his power known, endured with great patience the objects of wrath—ripe for destruction?[g] 23 And what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of mercy whom he prepared in advance for glory, 24 including us, whom he called—not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles.
God Shows Mercy to Gentiles and the Remnant of Israel
25 This is also what God says in Hosea:
Those who were not my people, I will call my people,
and she who was not loved, I will call my loved one.[h]
26 And, it will be that in the place where they were told,
“You are not my people,”
there they will be called “sons of the living God.”[i]
27 And Isaiah cries out about Israel:
Although the number of the sons of Israel is as great as the sand
of the sea,
only the remnant will be saved.
28 For the Lord, who carries out what he says without delay,[j]
will do what he said completely and decisively on the earth.[k]
29 Just as Isaiah said earlier:
If the Lord of Armies[l] had not left us some descendants,
we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been
like Gomorrah.[m]
The Majority of Jews Rejected Justification by Faith
30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have obtained righteousness, a righteousness that is by faith. 31 But Israel, while pursuing the law as a way of righteousness, did not reach it. 32 Why? Because they kept pursuing it not by faith, but as if it comes by works.[n] They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 Just as it is written:
Look, I am putting a stone in Zion over which they will stumble
and a rock over which they will fall.
The one who believes[o] in him will not be put to shame.[p]
Footnotes
- Romans 9:7 Genesis 21:12
- Romans 9:9 Genesis 18:10
- Romans 9:12 Genesis 25:23
- Romans 9:13 Malachi 1:2,3
- Romans 9:15 Exodus 33:19
- Romans 9:17 Exodus 9:16
- Romans 9:22 Or who had prepared themselves for destruction?
- Romans 9:25 Hosea 2:23
- Romans 9:26 Hosea 1:10
- Romans 9:28 Some witnesses to the text omit who carries out what he says without delay.
- Romans 9:28 Isaiah 10:22-23
- Romans 9:29 Or Sabaoth. The Hebrew word Sabaoth means armies. God’s armies are the armies of angels and the armies of stars.
- Romans 9:29 Isaiah 1:9
- Romans 9:32 Some witnesses to the text read by works of the law.
- Romans 9:33 Some witnesses to the text read And everyone who believes.
- Romans 9:33 Isaiah 28:16
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