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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Romans 9 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/romans/9.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/romans/9-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">ESV</a> > Romans 9</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../romans/8.htm" title="Romans 8">◄</a> Romans 9 <a href="../romans/10.htm" title="Romans 10">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/romans/9.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">God’s Sovereign Choice</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or brothers and sisters">a</a></sup></span> my kinsmen according to the flesh. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>So then it depends not on human will or exertion,<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Greek not of him who wills or runs">b</a></sup></span> but on God, who has mercy. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.</p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>But 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?” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>As indeed he says in Hosea,</p><span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="ln-group">“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’</span><br /><span class="indent">and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’</span><br /><span class="indent">there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”</span></p> <p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or children of Israel">c</a></sup></span> be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span>And as Isaiah predicted,</p><span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="ln-group">“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,</span><br /><span class="indent">we would have been like Sodom</span><br /><span class="indent">and become like Gomorrah.”</span></p> <p class="heading">Israel’s Unbelief</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span>What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span>but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Greek a law of righteousness">d</a></sup></span> did not succeed in reaching that law. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span>Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/9-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span>as it is written,</p><span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="ln-group">“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;</span><br /><span class="indent">and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”</span></p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">3</span> Or <i><span class="catch-word">brothers</span> and sisters</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">16</span> Greek <i><span class="catch-word">not</span> of him who wills or runs</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">27</span> Or <i>children of Israel</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">d</span> <span class="fnverse">31</span> Greek <i><span class="catch-word">a law</span> of righteousness</i><br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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