3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, my fellow countrymen,
4. who are Israelites. To them belong the adoption as sons, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.
5. To them belong the patriarchs, and from them, by human descent, came the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever! Amen.
6. It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel,
7. nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.”
8. This means it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants.
9. For this is what the promise declared: “About a year from now I will return and Sarah will have a son.”
10. Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our ancestor Isaac –
11. even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) –
12. it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,”
13. just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not!
15. For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16. So then, it does not depend on human desire or exertion, but on God who shows mercy.
17. For the scripture says to Pharaoh: “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18. So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden.