Romans 9
1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
[Now I would like to discuss the fact that most of my fellow Israelites have rejected Christ]. Because of my relationship with Christ, I say completely truthfully [what I will now tell you]. I am not lying [DOU]! My conscience confirms what I [say] because the Holy Spirit [controls it].
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
[I tell you that] I grieve very greatly and deeply [DOU] [about my fellow Israelites].
3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
I personally would be willing to let [God] curse me [and, as a result, be separated] from Christ, [if that would] help my fellow Israelites, my natural kinsmen, [to believe in Christ].
4 Who are Israelites; to whom [pertaineth] the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service [of God], and the promises;
We [Jews] are [Israelites, God’s chosen] descendants of [Jacob]. [God has always considered] us as his children [MET]. It was to our ancestors [that he used to appear] gloriously [while they were in the desert]. It was with them that [God made] covenants [several times]. It was to them [that God] gave the laws [at Sinai Mountain]. They were the ones [to whom God showed how they should] worship him. They were the ones [to whom God] promised many things, [especially that the Messiah would come from their race].
5 Whose [are] the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ [came], who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen. (aiōn g165)
It was our ancestors, [Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, whom God chose to found our nation]. And, [most importantly], it was from us Israelites that the Messiah received his human nature. [Nevertheless, most of my fellow Israelites have rejected Christ], who is the one who controls all things! He is God, the one who is worthy that we praise him forever! This is true! (OR, Amen!) (aiōn g165)
6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they [are] not all Israel, which are of Israel:
[God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that their descendants would all inherit his blessings]. But [although most of my fellow Israelites have rejected Christ], that does not [prove] that God has failed [to do] the things that he promised, because it is not all who are descended from Jacob and who [call themselves the people of] Israel whom [God considers] to be truly his people.
7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, [are they] all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
And it is also not all of Abraham’s natural descendants that [God considers] to be his people. Instead, [God considers only some of them to be Abraham’s children]. [This agrees with what God told Abraham]: “It is Isaac, [not any of your(sg) other sons], whom [I] will consider [to be the true father of] your descendants.”
8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
That means that it is not all the natural-born descendants [of Abraham] whom God [considers as] his children. Instead, it is those who [believed what God] promised whom [he] considers to be his children.
9 For this [is] the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
[You know that what God] promised [to Abraham] was this: “About this time [next year] Sarah [your wife] will bear a son [as a result of my enabling] [MTY] [her to do so].” [So Abraham knew that it was not through Ishmael, the son that he already had, that God would fulfill what he had promised him] (OR, [that his true descendants would come]).
10 And not only [this]; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, [even] by our father Isaac;
And not only then did God show [that he did not determine who would be his true children according to who their ancestors were. He showed it again] when Rebecca conceived [twins] by our ancestor Isaac.
11 (For [the children] being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth; )
Before [the twins, Jacob and Esau], were born, when neither one had yet done anything good or bad, [God] said to Rebecca [about the twins she was to bear], “The older one shall later serve the younger one, [contrary to normal custom].” [God said this] in order that [we] might [clearly] understand that what he purposed [for people] was according to what he himself determined. That is, people’s [eternal destiny] does not depend on what they do. Instead, their destiny depends on [God], the one who chooses them.
12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
And [this teaching is] ([supported/shown to be true]) [by] what is written [in the Scriptures] {what [a prophet] recorded} [that God said]: “I favored Jacob, [the younger son]. I did not favor [HYP] Esau, [the older son].”
14 What shall we say then? [Is there] unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
[Someone] might say, “(Is God unjust [by choosing the ones he wants to choose?/I think] that God is unjust [by choosing the ones he wants to choose!])” [RHQ] [I would reply], “[He is] certainly not [unjust]!”
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
God told Moses, “I will pity and help anyone whom I choose [DOU]!”
16 So then [it is] not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
So [God chooses people], not because they want [God to choose them] or because they try hard [to do things so that he] will [accept them]. Instead he chooses people because he himself has mercy [on undeserving ones].
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
[Moses] recorded [PRS] [that God had told] Pharaoh, “This is why I gave you [(sg)] authority [MTY]: It was in order that I might show [by how I oppose] you [how exceedingly] powerful I am, and in order that people everywhere [HYP] would hear about me [MTY].”
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth.
So [we conclude that God] kindly helps the ones he wants to act kindly towards. But he makes stubborn the ones [such as Pharaoh] that he wants [to make stubborn].
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
[One of] you may [object to this by] saying to me, “[Because God determines ahead of time everything that people do, that also implies that he wants us to do everything that we do]. (No one has resisted what God has willed!/Who has resisted what God has willed?) [RHQ] Therefore, (it would not be right that God would still condemn [a person for having sinned]!/why does God still condemn [a person for having sinned]?) [RHQ]”
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed [it], Why hast thou made me thus?
[I would reply that since] you [(sg)] are [just a] human being, (you do not [have any right at all to] criticize God!/[who are you to] say that what God does is wrong?) [RHQ] [As a potter is the one who creates a clay pot, God is the one who created you]. (A clay pot [MET] certainly would not [have a right to criticize] the potter by asking [PRS], “Why did you [(sg)] make me this way?”/Would a clay pot [have a right to criticize] the potter by asking [PRS], “Why did you [(sg)] make me this way?”) [RHQ]
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Instead, (the potter certainly has the right to [take] some clay and from one lump [of clay] make one pot that people will honor and [make another] one for ordinary purposes [MET]./does not a potter have the right to [take] some clay and from one lump [of clay] make one pot that people will honor and [make another] pot for ordinary purposes?) [MET, RHQ] [Similarly, God has the right to carry out what he purposes for people].
22 [What] if God, willing to shew [his] wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
Although God desires to show that he is angry [about sin], and [although he desires to] make clear that he can powerfully [punish people who have sinned], he tolerated very patiently the people [MET] who caused him to be angry and who deserved to be destroyed (OR, who were made to be destroyed).
23 And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,
[God has been patient] in order that he might make clear how very wonderfully [he acts toward those] [MET] whom he intended to act mercifully towards and whom he prepared ahead of time in order that they might [live] gloriously [in heaven].
24 Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
That means us whom he chose—not only [us] Jews but also non-Jews.
25 As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
[These words that] Hosea wrote [MTY] that [God] said also (show that God has the right/[support God’s right]) [to choose from among both Jews and non-Jews] [MTY]: I will declare that many people who were not my people are now my people. I will declare that many people whom I did not love [HYP] before, I love now.
26 And it shall come to pass, [that] in the place where it was said unto them, Ye [are] not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God.
And [another prophet wrote]: What will happen is that in the places where [God] told them before, “You are not my people,” in those same places [people] will declare truthfully that they are children of God, who is completely powerful.
27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
Isaiah also exclaimed concerning the Israelites: Even though the Israelites are [so many that no one can count them, like] sand [particles on the beach beside] the ocean, [only] a small part of them will be saved {[God] will save [only] a small part of them},
28 For he will finish the work, and cut [it] short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.
because the Lord will punish completely and speedily the [people who live on] this earth, as he said that he would do.
29 And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
[Also, we can understand from what the prophet] Isaiah said [that God would not save] anyone if he did not show mercy: If the Lord, who controls everything in heaven, had not mercifully allowed some of our descendants to survive, we would have become like the people of [the cities of] Sodom and Gomorrah, who were [SIM, DOU] completely destroyed.
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.
We must conclude this: [RHQ] Although non-Jews did not search out [a way by which] God would erase the record of their sins, they actually found that way because they trusted [in what Christ did for them].
31 But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.
But although [the people of] Israel sought a basis [by which God would] erase the record of their sins, they did not succeed in [fulfilling the true purpose of the] laws [that God gave to Moses].
32 Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;
The reason [RHQ] [that they did not succeed] is that they did not trust that [God would provide a way to save them]. Instead, they were trying to do certain things [in order that God would accept them. Because they did not expect the Messiah to die, the Israelites] felt disgusted about [Jesus’ death, which is like] the stone [MET] on which people stumble.
33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
This is what [a prophet] predicted when he wrote these words that [God said about the Messiah]: Listen! I am placing in Israel [MTY] [one who is like] a stone [MET] on which people will stumble. What he does will offend people [DOU]. Nevertheless, those who believe in him will not be disappointed.
