1 I am telling the truth in Christ {Christo: Faithful Witness of Truth}—I am not lying—my conscience {suneidesis: moral awareness} bears witness with me in the Holy Spirit {Pneumati Hagio, Divine Co-Witness}.
2 That I have great sorrow and unceasing pain {odyne: deep anguish} in my heart {kardia: inner being}.
3 For I myself was wishing that I could be accursed {anathema: under divine curse} from Christ {Christos, Covenant Messiah} for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
4 Who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption {huiothesia: placement as sons} and the glory {doxa: divine radiance} and the covenants and the giving of the law and the worship and the promises.
5 Theirs are the fathers {pateres: ancestral leaders}, and from them, as to human descent {kata sarka: physical lineage}, came the Christ {Christos: Promised Messiah}; He is over all things—God {Theos: Universal Sovereign}—worthy of blessing forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God {Theos, Unfailing Speaker} has failed; for not all those from Israel {Israel: covenant nation} are Israel.
7 Nor, because they are Abraham's {Abraam: faithful ancestor} seed, are they all children, but, “In Isaac {Isaak: covenant son} your seed will be called.”
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God {Theos, Source of Covenant Lineage}, but the children of the promise are reckoned as offspring {sperma: true spiritual descendants}.
9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I {Theos, Faithful Promise Keeper} will come, and Sarah {Sarra: covenant mother} shall have a son.”
10 And not only that, but also Rebekah {Rebekka: Covenant Matriarch}, having conception {koiten: marital conception} from one man, our father Isaac.
11 For, when they had not yet been born and had not done anything good or evil, in order that the purpose according to election {eklogen: divine selection} of God {Theos, Sovereign Chooser} might remain—not from works, but from the One who calls.
12 It was said to her, “The greater {meizon: higher in rank} will serve the smaller {elassoni: lower in status}.”
13 Just as it is written: “Jacob I {Theos, Sovereign Elector} loved, but Esau I hated {miseo: covenant rejection}.”
14 What then shall we say? Is there injustice {adikia: moral wrong} with God {theos, Righteous Arbiter}? May it never be!
15 For He {Theos, Sovereign Chooser} says to Moses, “I will have mercy {eleeo: extend undeserved kindness} on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”
16 So then, it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God {Theos, Merciful Sovereign} who shows mercy {eleon: bestows compassion}.
17 For the Scripture {graphe: sacred writing} says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I {Theos, Sovereign Revealer} have raised you up, so that I might show My power {dynamis: manifested strength} in you, and so that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18 So then, He {Theos, Sovereign Decider} has mercy on whom He wills, but He hardens {sklerynei: causes to become resistant} whom He wills.
19 You will say to me then, “Why does He {Theos, Righteous Judge} still find fault? For who has resisted His will {boulema: determined purpose}?”
20 O man, rather, who are you, the one answering back to God {Theos, Sovereign Creator}? Will the thing formed {plasma: creature shaped by Another} say to the one who formed it, “Why did You make me thus?”
21 Or does the potter not have authority {exousia: lawful claim} over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor {atimia: social disgrace}?
22 If, however, God {Theos, Sovereign Judge}, desiring to demonstrate wrath {orge: judicial anger} and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction.
23 And in order that He {Theos, Sovereign Revealer} might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels {skeue: chosen recipients} of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory.
24 Even us, whom He {Theos, Sovereign Caller} also called, not only from the Jews {Ioudaion: covenant descendants} but also from the Gentiles?
25 As He {Theos, Faithful Restorer} also says in Hosea {Hosee: prophetic witness}, “I will call those who are not My people My people, and her who was not beloved Beloved.”
26 And it will be in the place {topos: specific location} where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there they will be called sons of the living God {Theos, Restoring Father}.
27 But Isaiah {Esaias, Prophetic Messenger} cries out concerning Israel: “Even if the number of the sons of Israel should be as the sand of the sea, only the remnant {hypoleimma: faithful survivors} will be saved.”
28 For the Lord {Kyrios, Sovereign Executor} will accomplish and cut short the word upon the earth {ge: physical world}.
29 And just as Isaiah said before, “If the Lord of Sabaoth {kyrios Sabaoth, Commander of Armies} had not left us a seed {sperma: remnant offspring}, we would have become like Sodom and would have been made like Gomorrah.”
30 What then shall we say? That the nations {ethne: non-Jews} who were not pursuing righteousness attained righteousness—namely, the righteousness that is from faith {pistis: trustful reliance}.
31 But Israel, pursuing {dioko: zealous effort} a law of righteousness, did not attain to that law {nomos: covenant commandments}.
32 Why? Because it was not from faith {pistis: trusting dependence}, but as if it were from works {ergon: human deeds}; they stumbled against the stone of stumbling.
33 Just as it is written, “See, I am placing in Zion a stone {lithos: decisive sign} that makes people stumble and a rock of offense, and the one who believes upon Him {Christos, Stumbling Stone Messiah} will not be put to shame.”