2. That I have bitter grief and incessant anguish in my heart.
3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off and banished from Christ for the sake of my brethren and instead of them, my natural kinsmen and my fellow countrymen. [Exod. 32:32.]
4. For they are Israelites, and to them belong God's adoption [as a nation] and the glorious Presence (Shekinah). With them were the special covenants made, to them was the Law given. To them [the temple] worship was revealed and [God's own] promises announced. [Exod. 4:22; Hos. 11:1.]
5. To them belong the patriarchs, and as far as His natural descent was concerned, from them is the Christ, Who is exalted and supreme over all, God, blessed forever! Amen (so let it be).
6. However, it is not as though God's Word had failed [coming to nothing]. For it is not everybody who is a descendant of Jacob (Israel) who belongs to [the true] Israel.
7. And they are not all the children of Abraham because they are by blood his descendants. No, [the promise was] Your descendants will be called and counted through the line of Isaac [though Abraham had an older son]. [Gen. 21:9-12.]
8. That is to say, it is not the children of the body [of Abraham] who are made God's children, but it is the offspring to whom the promise applies that shall be counted [as Abraham's true] descendants.
9. For this is what the promise said, About this time [next year] will I return and Sarah shall have a son. [Gen. 18:10.]
10. And not only that, but this too: Rebecca conceived [two sons under exactly the same circumstances] by our forefather Isaac,
11. And the children were yet unborn and had so far done nothing either good or evil. Even so, in order further to carry out God's purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls [them],
12. It was said to her that the elder [son] should serve the younger [son]. [Gen. 25:21-23.]
13. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (held in relative disregard in comparison with My feeling for Jacob). [Mal. 1:2, 3.]
14. What shall we conclude then? Is there injustice upon God's part? Certainly not!
15. For He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion (pity) on whom I will have compassion. [Exod. 33:19.]