Romans 9 - Amplified Bible(AMP)

Concern for Israel

1I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me by the Holy Spirit,

2that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

3For I would wish that I myself were accursed, from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsmen,

4who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, the glory (Shekinah), the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship, and the promises.

5To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to His natural descent, came the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed), He who is exalted and supreme over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

6However, it is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel (Jacob) are Israel;

7and they are not all the children of Abraham because they are his descendants, but: “Your descendants will be named through Isaac”.

8That is, it is not the children of the body who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are counted as descendants.

9For this is what the promise said: “About this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

10And not only that, but this too: Rebekah conceived twin sons by one man, by our father Isaac;

11and though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything either good or bad, so that God’s purpose would stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls them,

12it was said to her, “The older (Esau) will serve the younger (Jacob).”

13As it is written and forever remains written, “Jacob I loved (chose, protected, blessed), but Esau I hated (held in disregard compared to Jacob).”

14What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Certainly not!

15For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”

16So then God’s choice is not dependent on human will, nor on human effort, but on God who shows mercy.

17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “I raised you up for this very purpose, to display My power in you, and so that My name would be proclaimed in all the earth.”

18So then, He has mercy on whom He wills (chooses), and He hardens whom He wills.

19You will say to me then, “Why does He still blame me? For who has resisted His will and purpose?”

20On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God and dares to defy Him? Will the thing which is formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”

21Does the potter not have the right over the clay, to make from the same lump one object for honorable use and another for common use?

22What if God, although willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, has tolerated with great patience the objects of His wrath prepared for destruction?

23And what if He has done so to make known the riches of His glory to the objects of His mercy, which He has prepared beforehand for glory,

24including us, whom He also called, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles?

25Just as He says in Hosea:

“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’

And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’ ”

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.”

27And Isaiah calls out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is only the remnant that will be saved;

28For the Lord will execute His word upon the earth completely and without delay.”

29It is as Isaiah foretold,

“If the Lord of Hosts had not left us seed,

We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah!”

30What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness obtained righteousness, that is, the righteousness which is produced by faith;

31whereas Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not succeed in fulfilling the law.

32And why not? Because it was not by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling Stone.

33As it is written and forever remains written,

“Behold I am laying in Zion a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offense;

And he who believes in Him will not be disappointed.”