I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit,
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
For I could {Or, pray}wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh:
who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the {Or, flesh; he who is over all, God, be blessed for ever.}flesh, who is over all, God blessed {Greek: unto the ages.}for ever. Amen.
But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel:
neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children: but, {Genesis 21:12}In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
That is, it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for a seed.
For this is a word of promise, {Genesis 18:10}According to this season will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.
And not only so; but Rebecca also having conceived by one, even by our father Isaac—
for the children being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth,
it was said unto her, {Genesis 25:23}The elder shall serve the younger.
Even as it is written, {Malachi 1:2 f}Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.
What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
For he saith to Moses, {Exodus 33:19}I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, {Exodus 9:16}For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth.
So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will?
Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus?
Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?
What if God, {Or, although willing}willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction:
{Some ancient authorities omit and.}and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory,
even us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
As he saith also in Hosea,
{Hosea 2:23}I will call that my people, which was not my people;
And her beloved, that was not beloved.
{Hosea 1:10}And it shall be, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people,
There shall they be called sons of the living God.
And Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, {Isaiah 10:22 f.}If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that shall be saved:
for the Lord will execute his word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short.
And, as Isaiah hath said before,
{Isaiah 1:9}Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed,
We had become as Sodom, and had been made like unto Gomorrah.
What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who followed not after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith:
but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law.
Wherefore? {Or, Because, doing it not by faith, but as it were by works, they stumbled}Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by works. They stumbled at the stone of stumbling;
even as it is written,
{Isaiah 28:16}Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence:
And he that believeth on {Or, it}him shall not be put to shame.
Querverweise zu Römer 9,4 Röm 9,4
But it is not as though the word of God hath come to nought. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel:
And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith Jehovah, Israel is my son, my first-born:
And when Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with him, then he heard the Voice speaking unto him from above the mercy-seat that was upon the ark of the testimony, from between the two cherubim: and he spake unto him.
In that day Jehovah made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God.
And it shall come to pass, when ye are come to the land which Jehovah will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
He hath given help to Israel his servant,That he might remember mercy
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but {That is, He who striveth with God, or, God striveth.}Israel: for thou hast {Or, had power with}striven with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Ye are the children of Jehovah your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
And she named the child {That is, There is no glory.}Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel; because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband.
And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
Thou camest down also upon mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
and he digged it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also hewed out a {Or, wine-vat}winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
(As he spake unto our fathers)Toward Abraham and his seed for ever.
And Moses went up unto God, and Jehovah called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be mine own possession {Or, above}from among all peoples: for all the earth is mine:
and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
They shall come with weeping; and with supplications will I lead them: I will {Or, bring them unto}cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.
And she said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken.
And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee, throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee.
and madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses thy servant,
Hear another parable: There was a man that was a householder, who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge about it, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into another country.
And hath raised up a horn of salvation for usIn the house of his servant David
(As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets that have been from of old),
Salvation from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
To show mercy towards our fathers,And to remember his holy covenant;
The oath which he sware unto Abraham our father,
To grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemiesShould serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
For thou art a holy people unto Jehovah thy God: Jehovah thy God hath chosen thee to be a people for his own possession, {Or, out of}above all peoples that are upon the face of the earth.
Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart {Hebrew: soundeth.}yearneth for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith Jehovah.
so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Jehovah filled the house of Jehovah.
This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee: every male among you shall be circumcised.
He showeth his word unto Jacob,His statutes and his ordinances unto Israel.
And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of holies;
For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him.
A Psalm of Asaph. {Or, Only good is God}Surely God is good to Israel,Even to such as are pure in heart.
When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
So have I looked upon thee in the sanctuary,To see thy power and thy glory.
And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that Jehovah hath spoken will we do, and be obedient.
And I gave them my statutes, and {Hebrew: made them to know.}showed them mine ordinances, which if a man do, he shall live {Or, by}in them.
being only (with meats and drinks and divers washings) carnal ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.
Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God {Greek: covenanted.}made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, {Genesis 12:3; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.}And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,
And delivered his strength into captivity,And his glory into the adversary's hand.
And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which Jehovah hath made with you {Or, upon all these conditions}concerning all these words.
Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that {Or, I, Jehovah, do sanctify them}I am Jehovah that sanctifieth them.
Unto you first God, having raised up his {Or, Child See Matthew 12:18; Isaiah 42:1; 52:13; 53:11.}Servant, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.
Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, that have been borne by me from their birth, that have been carried from the womb;
Let thy work appear unto thy servants,And thy glory upon their children.
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
And we bring you good tidings of the promise made unto the fathers,
Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and saith of him, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!
The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but Jehovah will be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy {Or, beauty}glory.
{[Chapter 28:69 in Hebrew]}These are the words of the covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
that God hath fulfilled the same unto our children, in that he raised up Jesus; as also it is written in the second psalm, {Psalm 2:7}Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.
And Jehovah said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and play the harlot after the strange gods of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.
that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Remember them, O my God, {Hebrew: for the defilings of &c.}because they have defiled the priesthood, and the covenant of the priesthood, and of the Levites.
For when God made promise to Abraham, since he could swear by none greater, he sware by himself,
saying, {Genesis 22:16 f.}Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men swear by the greater: and in every dispute of theirs the oath is final for confirmation.
Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, {Greek: mediated.}interposed with an oath;
I have made a covenant with my chosen,I have sworn unto David my servant:
My covenant will I not {Hebrew: profane.}break,Nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Thus saith Jehovah: If ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season;
then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.
As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites that minister unto me.
And the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Considerest thou not what this people have spoken, saying, The two families which Jehovah did choose, he hath cast them off? thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.
Thus saith Jehovah: If my covenant of day and night stand not, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;
Ye are the sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God {Greek: covenanted.}made with your fathers, saying unto Abraham, {Genesis 12:3; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14.}And in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
But now hath he obtained a ministry the more excellent, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second.
For {Some ancient authorities read finding fault with it, he saith unto them &c.}finding fault with them, he saith, {Jeremiah 31:31 ff}Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,That I will {Greek: accomplish.}make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathersIn the day that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt;For they continued not in my covenant,And I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that {Greek: I will covenant.}I will make with the house of IsraelAfter those days, saith the Lord;I will put my laws into their mind,And on their heart also will I write them:And I will be to them a God,And they shall be to me a people: