1I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh, 4who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 5of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen. 6But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel. 7Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called." 8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed. 9For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son." 10Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. 11For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, 12it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger." 13Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." 14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." 16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." 18So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. 19You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?" 20But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?" 21Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? 22What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction, 23and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, 24us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? 25As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; 26"It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' 27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, "If the number of the sons of Israel are as the sand of the sea, 28for the Lord will fulfill his word completely and without delay upon the earth."¶ 29As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the LORD of hosts had left us a seed, 30What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; 31but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. 32Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone; 33even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock that will make them fall;