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[1]Truth I say in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing testimony with me in the Holy Spirit,
[2]that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart --
[3]for I was wishing, I myself, to be anathema from the Christ -- for my brethren, my kindred, according to the flesh,
[4]who are Israelites, whose [is] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises,
[5]whose [are] the fathers, and of whom [is] the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen.
[6]And it is not possible that the word of God hath failed; for not all who [are] of Israel are these Israel;
[7]nor because they are seed of Abraham [are] all children, but -- `in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;'
[8]that is, the children of the flesh -- these [are] not children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed;
[9]for the word of promise [is] this; `According to this time I will come, and there shall be to Sarah a son.'
[10]And not only [so], but also Rebecca, having conceived by one -- Isaac our father --
[11](for they being not yet born, neither having done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to choice, might remain; not of works, but of Him who is calling,) it was said to her --
[12]`The greater shall serve the less;'
[13]according as it hath been written, `Jacob I did love, and Esau I did hate.'
[14]What, then, shall we say? unrighteousness [is] with God? let it not be!
[15]for to Moses He saith, `I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion;'
[16]so, then -- not of him who is willing, nor of him who is running, but of God who is doing kindness:
[17]for the Writing saith to Pharaoh -- `For this very thing I did raise thee up, that I might shew in thee My power, and that My name might be declared in all the land;'
[18]so, then, to whom He willeth, He doth kindness, and to whom He willeth, He doth harden.
[19]Thou wilt say, then, to me, `Why yet doth He find fault? for His counsel who hath resisted?'
[20]nay, but, O man, who art thou that art answering again to God? shall the thing formed say to Him who did form [it], Why me didst thou make thus?
[21]hath not the potter authority over the clay, out of the same lump to make the one vessel to honour, and the one to dishonour?
[22]And if God, willing to shew the wrath and to make known His power, did endure, in much long suffering, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction,
[23]and that He might make known the riches of His glory on vessels of kindness, that He before prepared for glory, whom also He did call -- us --
[24]not only out of Jews, but also out of nations,
[25]as also in Hosea He saith, `I will call what [is] not My people -- My people; and her not beloved -- Beloved,
[26]and it shall be -- in the place where it was said to them, Ye [are] not My people; there they shall be called sons of the living God.'
[27]And Isaiah doth cry concerning Israel, `If the number of the sons of Israel may be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved;
[28]for a matter He is finishing, and is cutting short in righteousness, because a matter cut short will the Lord do upon the land.
[29]and according as Isaiah saith before, `Except the Lord of Sabaoth did leave to us a seed, as Sodom we had become, and as Gomorrah we had been made like.'
[30]What, then, shall we say? that nations who are not pursuing righteousness did attain to righteousness, and righteousness that [is] of faith,
[31]and Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, at a law of righteousness did not arrive;
[32]wherefore? because -- not by faith, but as by works of law; for they did stumble at the stone of stumbling,
[33]according as it hath been written, `Lo, I place in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence; and every one who is believing thereon shall not be ashamed.'
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