1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4 Who are Israelites; to whom [pertaineth] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service [of God], and the promises; 5 Whose [are] the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ [came], who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. 6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel: 7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. 8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. 9 For this [is] the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son. 10 And not only [this]; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac; 11 (For [the children] being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;) 12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. 13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. 14 What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? God forbid. 15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 16 So then [it is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. 17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. 18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth. 19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? 20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus? 21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? 22 [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction: 23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, 24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles? 25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26 And it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. 27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved: 28 For he will finish the work, and cut [it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth. 29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha. 30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. 31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. 32 Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone; 33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Romans · King James Version (with Apocrypha)
Romans 9 King James Version (with Apocrypha)
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (33)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 1 Timothy 2:7; Romans 1:9; Galatians 1:20; 2 Corinthians 11:10; Philippians 1:8
- 2 Philippians 3:18; Romans 10:1; Jeremiah 13:17; Psalm 119:136; Lamentations 3:51
- 3 Exodus 32:32; Esther 8:6; Romans 11:14; Galatians 3:10; 1 Corinthians 16:22
- 4 Ephesians 2:12; Psalm 147:19; Genesis 17:2; Romans 9:6; Acts 2:39
- 5 John 10:30; Colossians 1:16–19; John 1:1–3; Romans 1:25; 1 John 5:20
- 6 Romans 2:28–29; Galatians 6:16; Romans 11:1–2; Romans 4:12–16; Romans 3:3
- 7 Genesis 21:12; Hebrews 11:18; John 8:37–39; Galatians 4:23; Luke 3:8
- 8 John 1:13; Romans 4:11–16; Galatians 3:26–29; Romans 8:14; Galatians 4:22–31
- 9 Genesis 18:10; Genesis 18:14; Genesis 17:21; Hebrews 11:11–12; Genesis 21:2
- 10 Genesis 25:21–23; Luke 16:26; Romans 5:11; Romans 5:3
- 11 2 Timothy 1:9; Ephesians 1:4–5; 2 Peter 1:10; Romans 8:28–30; Ephesians 1:9–11
- 12 Genesis 25:22–23
- 13 Malachi 1:2–3
- 14 2 Chronicles 19:7; Psalm 145:17; Deuteronomy 32:4; Job 34:10–12; Psalm 92:15
- 15 Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:16; Micah 7:18; Romans 9:18–19; Exodus 34:6–7
- 16 Ephesians 2:8; Philippians 2:13; Matthew 11:25–26; 1 Peter 2:9–10; Ephesians 2:4–5
- 17 Exodus 9:16; Proverbs 16:4; Exodus 14:17–18; Exodus 10:1–2; John 17:26
- 18 Joshua 11:20; Exodus 4:21; Romans 9:15–16; Romans 11:7–8; 2 Thessalonians 2:10–12
- 19 Daniel 4:35; 2 Chronicles 20:6; 1 Corinthians 15:12; 1 Corinthians 15:35; Job 9:19
- 20 Isaiah 29:16; Isaiah 45:9–11; Isaiah 64:8; Job 33:13; Job 36:23
- 21 Isaiah 64:8; 2 Timothy 2:20–21; Proverbs 16:4; Jeremiah 18:3–6; Acts 9:15
- 22 Proverbs 16:4; Jude 4; Romans 9:21; 1 Peter 2:8; 2 Timothy 2:20
- 23 Romans 2:4; Colossians 1:27; 1 Peter 1:2–5; Ephesians 2:10; Romans 5:20–21
- 24 Colossians 3:11; Hebrews 3:1; Ephesians 3:6–8; Galatians 3:28; Romans 11:11–13
- 25 Hosea 2:23; 1 Peter 2:10; Ezekiel 16:8; John 16:27; Romans 1:7
- 26 Hosea 1:9–10; 1 John 3:1–3; Isaiah 43:6; Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:16
- 27 Isaiah 10:20–23; Romans 11:4–6; Isaiah 1:9; Hosea 1:10; Jeremiah 5:10
- 28 Isaiah 10:23; Acts 17:31; Psalm 9:8; Revelation 19:11; Isaiah 30:12–14
- 29 Isaiah 1:9; Isaiah 13:19; James 5:4; Amos 4:11; Jeremiah 50:40
- 30 Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 11:7; Galatians 2:16; Romans 4:11; Galatians 5:5
- 31 Romans 11:7; Romans 3:20; James 2:10–11; Romans 10:2–4; Galatians 5:3–4
- 32 1 Corinthians 1:23; Luke 7:23; 1 Peter 2:8; Romans 11:11; Romans 4:16
- 33 Isaiah 28:16; Isaiah 8:14–15; Romans 10:11; Joel 2:26–27; 1 Peter 2:6–8
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
Did I not seem yesterday to you to have spoken some great and exorbitant things of Paul's love toward Christ? And great indeed they were, too great for any words to express. Yet what you have heard to-day are as far above those things, as those things were above ours.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
… saints; and discourse how it is that "this mortal body shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall put on incorruption;" and proclaim in what sense [God] says, "That is a people who was not a people; and she is beloved who was not beloved;" and in what sense He says that "more are the children of her that was …
For it pleased Thee, O Lord, to take away the reproach of diminution from Jacob, that the elder should serve the younger; and Thou hast called the Gentiles into Thine inheritance.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
how did he "take the form of a servant?" how "was the Word made flesh?" and how saith Paul to the Romans, "Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is God over all?" Therefore that He was of us, and of our substance, and of the Virgin's womb, is manifest from these things, and from others beside; but …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
… is "crowned with glory and honour," and "glory, honour and peace" are laid up by promise "to every man that worketh good." There is moreover a special and peculiar glory for Israelites "to whom," it is said "pertaineth the adoption and the glory...and the service," and the Psalmist speaks of a certain glory of his own, "that my glory may …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 8 (1895)