| 章 |
| 9:1 |
Truth I say in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing testimony with me in the Holy Spirit,
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| 9:2 |
that I have great grief and unceasing pain in my heart --
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| 9:3 |
for I was wishing, I myself, to be anathema from the Christ -- for my brethren, my kindred, according to the flesh,
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| 9:4 |
who are Israelites, whose [is] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises,
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| 9:5 |
whose [are] the fathers, and of whom [is] the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen.
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| 9:6 |
And it is not possible that the word of God hath failed; for not all who [are] of Israel are these Israel;
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| 9:7 |
nor because they are seed of Abraham [are] all children, but -- `in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;'
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| 9:8 |
that is, the children of the flesh -- these [are] not children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed;
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| 9:9 |
for the word of promise [is] this; `According to this time I will come, and there shall be to Sarah a son.'
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| 9:10 |
And not only [so], but also Rebecca, having conceived by one -- Isaac our father --
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| 9:11 |
(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 --
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| 9:12 |
`The greater shall serve the less;'
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| 9:13 |
according as it hath been written, `Jacob I did love, and Esau I did hate.'
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| 9:14 |
What, then, shall we say? unrighteousness [is] with God? let it not be!
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| 9:15 |
for to Moses He saith, `I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion;'
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| 9:16 |
so, then -- not of him who is willing, nor of him who is running, but of God who is doing kindness:
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| 9:17 |
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;'
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| 9:18 |
so, then, to whom He willeth, He doth kindness, and to whom He willeth, He doth harden.
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| 9:19 |
Thou wilt say, then, to me, `Why yet doth He find fault? for His counsel who hath resisted?'
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| 9:20 |
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?
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| 9:21 |
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?
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| 9:22 |
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,
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| 9:23 |
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 --
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| 9:24 |
not only out of Jews, but also out of nations,
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| 9:25 |
as also in Hosea He saith, `I will call what [is] not My people -- My people; and her not beloved -- Beloved,
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| 9:26 |
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.'
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| 9:27 |
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;
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| 9:28 |
for a matter He is finishing, and is cutting short in righteousness, because a matter cut short will the Lord do upon the land.
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| 9:29 |
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.'
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| 9:30 |
What, then, shall we say? that nations who are not pursuing righteousness did attain to righteousness, and righteousness that [is] of faith,
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| 9:31 |
and Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, at a law of righteousness did not arrive;
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| 9:32 |
wherefore? because -- not by faith, but as by works of law; for they did stumble at the stone of stumbling,
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| 9:33 |
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.'
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