| 章 |
| 9:1 |
I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
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| 9:2 |
that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
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| 9:3 |
For I could wish that I myself were accursed, [separated] from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,
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| 9:4 |
who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the [temple] service and the promises,
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| 9:5 |
whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.
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| 9:6 |
But [it is] not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are [descended] from Israel;
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| 9:7 |
neither are they all children because they are Abraham's descendants, but: "through Isaac your descendants will be named."
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| 9:8 |
That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.
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| 9:9 |
For this is a word of promise: "At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son."
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| 9:10 |
And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived [twins] by one man, our father Isaac;
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| 9:11 |
for though [the twins] were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to [His] choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls,
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| 9:12 |
it was said to her, "The older will serve the younger."
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| 9:13 |
Just as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."
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| 9:14 |
What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!
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| 9:15 |
For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
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| 9:16 |
So then it [does] not [depend] on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.
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| 9:17 |
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth."
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| 9:18 |
So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.
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| 9:19 |
You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?"
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| 9:20 |
On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it?
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| 9:21 |
Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use, and another for common use?
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| 9:22 |
What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?
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| 9:23 |
And [He did so] in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory,
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| 9:24 |
[even] us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
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| 9:25 |
As He says also in Hosea, "I will call those who were not My people, 'My people,' And her who was not beloved, 'beloved.'"
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| 9:26 |
"And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, 'you are not My people,' There they shall be called sons of the living God."
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| 9:27 |
And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved;
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| 9:28 |
for the Lord will execute His word upon the earth, thoroughly and quickly."
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| 9:29 |
And just as Isaiah foretold, "Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity, We would have become as Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah."
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| 9:30 |
What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith;
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| 9:31 |
but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at [that] law.
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| 9:32 |
Why? Because [they did] not [pursue it] by faith, but as though [it were] by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,
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| 9:33 |
just as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed."
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