Romans 9

I am telling the truth as one who belongs to Christ. I am not lying. My own conscience, guided by the Holy Spirit, agrees with what I say.

1I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,

Note"Holy Ghost" is the KJV's regular phrase for the Holy Spirit. In 1611 "ghost" simply meant spirit or breath and carried none of the modern sense of an apparition of the dead.

2I carry a heavy grief and a pain in my heart that never stops.

2That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.

Note"Heaviness" in 1611 English meant grief or sorrow, not weight or drowsiness.

3In fact, I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ, if that would help my brothers, my own people by birth.

3For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh:

Note"Accursed" translates the Greek word anathema, something handed over to God for destruction and so cut off from the community. "My kinsmen according to the flesh" means his blood relatives, here his fellow Jews.

4They are the people of Israel. God made them his adopted children. He gave them his glory, his covenants, the law, the worship in the temple, and the promises.

4Who 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;

NoteFour terms here are technical. "Adoption" draws on a formal legal act, well known in the Roman world, by which an outsider was given the full standing of a son, inheritance included. "The glory" refers to the visible blaze of God's presence that Israel's scriptures describe settling on the tabernacle and the temple. A "covenant" was a binding agreement, sworn and usually sealed with a sign or a sacrifice; the ones meant are those made with Abraham, with Israel at Sinai, and with David. "The service of God" translates a word for the organized ritual worship of the temple, its sacrifices and ceremonies, not service in the sense of helping people.

5The great fathers of the nation belong to them, and from them, as far as human descent goes, came Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

5Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Note"The fathers" means the founding ancestors of the nation: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The last part of the verse is genuinely disputed. Ancient Greek manuscripts carried no punctuation, so the closing words can be read as a description of Christ ("who is over all, God blessed for ever") or as a separate burst of praise to God ("God, who is over all, be blessed for ever"). Translators divide over it, and the Greek alone cannot settle it.

6This does not mean that God's word has failed. Not everyone descended from Israel really counts as Israel.

6Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:

NoteThe man Jacob was renamed Israel, and his descendants were called Israel after him, so the word is at once a personal name, a family line and a nation. The sentence turns on that double use: being descended from Israel and counting as Israel are not automatically the same thing.

7And not all of Abraham's descendants are his true children. God said, "Your family line will be traced through Isaac."

7Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.

Note"Seed" is the KJV's word for offspring or descendants, singular in form but collective in sense. The quotation is from Genesis 21:12, spoken when Abraham's older son Ishmael was sent away: the line that carried the promise was traced through Isaac, not through every child Abraham fathered.

8That is, the children born in the ordinary human way are not automatically God's children. It is the children born because of God's promise who count as Abraham's true family.

8That 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.

9Here is what the promise said: "At this set time I will come back, and Sarah will have a son."

9For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.

NoteQuoting Genesis 18:10 and 14. "At this time will I come" means at this same season a year from now, when Sarah, long past childbearing age, would have a son.

10There is more than that example. Rebecca had twins by one man, our father Isaac.

10And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;

NoteThe point is the tightening of the example. Abraham's two sons had different mothers, so one could say the difference lay there. Rebecca's twins, Esau and Jacob, had the same mother and the same father and were conceived at the same moment, which removes that explanation.

11Before the two boys were born, before either had done anything good or bad, God spoke. He did this so that his plan of choosing would stand, resting not on anyone's works but on the God who calls.

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;)

Note"Election" here means simply choosing or selecting. It carries none of the modern sense of an election by vote.

12God said to her, "The older son will serve the younger one."

12It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.

NoteQuoting Genesis 25:23, spoken to Rebecca while she was still pregnant. In that culture the firstborn son normally took the leading place in the family and a double share of the inheritance, so "The elder shall serve the younger" reverses the ordinary order of things.

13This matches what is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

13As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

NoteQuoting Malachi 1:2 and 3, written centuries after Esau and Jacob had died and speaking of the two nations descended from them, Israel and Edom. In Hebrew usage "love" and "hate" set against each other in this way commonly mean chosen and not chosen, preferred and passed over, rather than describing feelings.

14So what should we say? Is God unfair? Certainly not.

14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.

Note"God forbid" is the KJV's stock rendering of a short Greek phrase meaning "may it never be." The word God does not occur in it. It is the strongest available way of rejecting a suggestion.

15God says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whoever I choose to have mercy on, and I will show pity to whoever I choose to show pity to."

15For 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.

NoteQuoting Exodus 33:19, God's reply to Moses after Moses asked to be shown God's glory.

16So it does not depend on what a person wants or on how hard a person works for it. It depends on God, who shows mercy.

16So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.

Note"Him that willeth" means the person who wants or intends something. "Him that runneth" is a footrace image standing for hard human effort, the runner straining for the prize.

17The Scripture says to Pharaoh, "I raised you up for this very reason: to show my power through you, and to spread my name through the whole earth."

17For 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.

NoteQuoting Exodus 9:16, addressed to Pharaoh during the plagues in Egypt. "Raised thee up" is ambiguous in the Hebrew and in the Greek alike: it has been understood as brought you onto the stage of history, as kept you standing when you might have been destroyed, and as lifted you to power.

18So God shows mercy to whoever he chooses, and he makes stubborn whoever he chooses.

18Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.

Note"Hardeneth" picks up the repeated language of the Exodus story, where Pharaoh's heart is said to be hard, meaning stubborn and unyielding. In that story the hardening is sometimes attributed to Pharaoh himself and sometimes to God, and Paul is quoting that language as it stands.

19Now one of you will say to me, "Then why does God still blame us? Who can stand against what he decides?"

19Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?

Note"Find fault" means blame or hold responsible. "His will" here means his settled purpose or decision, not a passing wish.

20But who are you, a human being, to argue back at God? Can something that was made say to the one who made it, "Why did you make me like this?"

20Nay 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?

Note"Repliest against" means answers back or contradicts. The picture of the clay questioning the potter who shapes it is taken from Isaiah 29:16 and 45:9.

21Doesn't the potter have the right to take the same lump of clay and make one pot for special use and another for ordinary use?

21Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?

Note"Power" here means right or authority, not physical force. A pottery workshop turned out both fine ware for the table and display and rough ware for ordinary or dirty jobs, all from one batch of clay. "Honour" and "dishonour" describe the status of the use a pot is put to, not the moral worth of the pot.

22What if God, wanting to show his anger and make his power known, put up patiently for a long time with the objects of his anger, which were made ready for destruction?

22What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:

Note"Longsuffering" is the KJV's word for patience held over a long stretch of time. "Wrath" here means settled judicial anger against wrong, not a loss of temper. The word translated "fitted" is genuinely ambiguous in Greek: the same form can mean made ready by someone else or having made themselves ready, and translators divide over which is meant.

23And what if he did this to show how rich his glory is toward the objects of his mercy, which he had prepared ahead of time to share that glory?

23And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory,

Note"Afore prepared" means prepared beforehand, in advance.

24We are those people. He has called us, not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles.

24Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

Note"Gentiles" is the standard term for everyone who is not Jewish, that is, all the other nations of the world.

25This is what he says in the book of Hosea: "I will call them my people, though they were not my people, and I will call her my loved one, though she was not loved."

25As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.

Note"Osee" is the KJV's spelling of Hosea, following the Greek form of the name. The quotation is from Hosea 2:23. Hosea had been told to give his children names that served as living signs to Israel: a daughter called Lo-ruhamah, "not pitied" or "not loved," and a son called Lo-ammi, "not my people." The promise quoted here cancels both names.

26And, "In the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called children of the living God."

26And 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.

NoteQuoting Hosea 1:10. "The living God" was the standard way of distinguishing God from carved idols, which could neither move nor speak.

27Isaiah calls out about Israel: "Even if the people of Israel were as many as the grains of sand by the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved.

27Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:

Note"Esaias" is the KJV's spelling of Isaiah, taken from the Greek form of the name. A "remnant" is what is left over after most of something has been destroyed; in the prophets it is the technical word for the handful of survivors left after a national catastrophe. The quotation is from Isaiah 10:22 and 23.

28For the Lord will carry out his sentence on the earth completely and quickly, and he will do it justly."

28For he will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness: because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

NoteThe 1611 phrasing is obscure now. "Cut it short" and "a short work" do not refer to shortening a text; they mean that God will settle the matter decisively and without delay.

29Isaiah also said earlier, "If the Lord of armies had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom and ended up like Gomorrah."

29And 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.

NoteQuoting Isaiah 1:9. "Sabaoth" is not a form of "Sabbath." It is a Hebrew word left untranslated, meaning armies or hosts, so the title means the Lord who commands the armies of heaven. "Sodoma" and "Gomorrha" are the Greek spellings of Sodom and Gomorrah, the two cities destroyed in Genesis 19; the force of the comparison is that they were wiped out with nobody left. "A seed" here means a few surviving descendants to carry the line on.

30So what should we say? That Gentiles, who were not chasing after being right with God, have received it, and it is the righteousness that comes through faith.

30What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith.

Note"Followed after" means pursued or chased. "Righteousness" translates a word that covers both being in the right morally and being declared in the right, acquitted, as in a courtroom verdict. Paul uses both senses at once, which is why English translations vary between "righteousness" and "being right with God."

31But Israel, chasing after a law that would make them right with God, never reached that law.

31But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness.

Note"The law of righteousness" keeps the compressed word order of the Greek. The phrase means a law that would produce or deliver righteousness, that is, the law approached as the route to standing in the right with God.

32Why not? Because they did not go after it by faith. They went after it as if it came by keeping the law's rules. They tripped over the stone that makes people stumble,

32Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone;

Note"The works of the law" means the doing of what the law requires, the whole practice of keeping its commands. "Stumblingstone" is a stone left in the road that a walker trips over.

33as it is written: "Look, I am setting in Zion a stone that makes people stumble and a rock that trips them up. Whoever believes in him will never be put to shame."

33As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Note"Sion" is the KJV's Greek-based spelling of Zion, the hill in Jerusalem and, by extension, the city itself. The quotation combines two lines from Isaiah, 28:16 and 8:14. "Rock of offence" has nothing to do with insulting anyone: "offence" here renders a word for a trap or a trip hazard, the thing that makes a person fall. "Shall not be ashamed" means will not be publicly disgraced or left humiliated, as someone is who has trusted in something that fails.