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The Blue Letter Bible

Romans 9 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

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God’s Selection of Israel

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:1

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:1 - With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:2

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:2 - My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:3

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:3 - for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters.[fn] I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:4

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:4 - They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children.[fn] God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:5

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:5 - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.[fn]
(Gen 25:19–23 )

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:6

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:6 - Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:7

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:7 - Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,”[fn] though Abraham had other children, too.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:8

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:8 - This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:9

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:9 - For God had promised, “I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:10

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:10 - This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:11

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:11 - But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God. (This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:12

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:12 - he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told, “Your older son will serve your younger son.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:13

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:13 - In the words of the Scriptures, “I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:14

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:14 - Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:15

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:15 - For God said to Moses,
“I will show mercy to anyone I choose,
and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:16

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:16 - So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:17

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:17 - For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh, “I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:18

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:18 - So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:19

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:19 - Well then, you might say, “Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:20

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:20 - No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, “Why have you made me like this?”

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:21

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:21 - When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:22

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:22 - In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:23

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:23 - He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:24

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:24 - And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:25

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:25 - Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,
“Those who were not my people,
I will now call my people.
And I will love those
whom I did not love before.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:26

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:26 - And,
“Then, at the place where they were told,
‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called
‘children of the living God.’”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:27

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:27 - And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,
“Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore,
only a remnant will be saved.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:28

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:28 - For the LORD will carry out his sentence upon the earth
quickly and with finality.”[fn]

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:29

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:29 - And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:
“If the LORD of Heaven’s Armies
had not spared a few of our children,
we would have been wiped out like Sodom,
destroyed like Gomorrah.”[fn]
Israel’s Unbelief

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:30

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:30 - What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:31

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:31 - But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:32

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:32 - Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law[fn] instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.

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Unchecked Copy Box Rom 9:33

Unchecked Copy BoxRom 9:33 - God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said,
“I am placing a stone in Jerusalem[fn] that makes people stumble,
a rock that makes them fall.
But anyone who trusts in him
will never be disgraced.”[fn]
See the NLT Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).
NLT Footnotes
Greek my brothers.
Greek chosen for sonship.
Or May God, the one who rules over everything, be praised forever. Amen.
Gen 21:12.
Gen 18:10, 14.
Greek she conceived children through this one man.
Gen 25:23.
Mal 1:2-3.
Exod 33:19.
Exod 9:16 (Greek version).
Hos 2:23.
Greek sons of the living God. Hos 1:10.
Isa 10:22-23 (Greek version).
Isa 10:22-23 (Greek version).
Isa 1:9.
Greek by works.
Greek in Zion.
Isa 8:14; 28:16 (Greek version).
NLT

Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Full copyright information is provided here. Visit the New Living Translation website.

For more information on this translation, see the NLT Preface.

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Romans Chapter 9 — Additional Translations:

King James Version New King James Version New International Version English Standard Version Christian Standard Bible New American Standard Bible 2020 New American Standard Bible 1995 Legacy Standard Bible Amplified Bible New English Translation Revised Standard Version American Standard Version Young's Literal Translation Darby Translation Webster's Bible Hebrew Names Version Latin Vulgate Morphological Greek New Testament Textus Receptus Smith Van Dyck Arabic Bible Open New Arabic Version Reina Valera 1909 Reina-Valera 1960 Bible in Basic English Chinese Traditional Union Espanol Moderno Korean Holy Bible Louis Segond German Luther Russian Synodal Translation Sagradas Escrituras