1I speak the truth in Christ—I do not lie—my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit,2that my grief is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.3For I myself was wishing to be devoted away from the Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh,4who are Israelites; theirs are the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises;5theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.6It is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel,7and not all the children of Abraham are his offspring, but 'Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.'8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.9For this is the word of promise: 'At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.'10And not only that, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac,11though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—so that God's purpose of election might stand,12not because of works but because of call—she was told, 'The older will serve the younger.'13As it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.'14What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? By no means!15For he says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'16So then it depends not on will or exertion, but on God, who shows mercy.17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this purpose I have raised you, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.'18So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.19You will say to me then, 'Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?'20But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, 'Why have you made me like this?'21Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?22What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,23in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared for glory—24even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?25As indeed he says in Hosea, 'Those who were not my people I will call my people, and her who was not beloved I will call beloved,'26and 'In the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people," there they shall be called sons of God.'27And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 'Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant will be saved,'28for the Lord will carry out his word upon the earth, completing and cutting short.29And as Isaiah foretold, 'If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring, we would have become like Sodom and been made like Gomorrah.'