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.'
Romans · Young's Literal Translation
Romans 9 Young's Literal Translation
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)