Romans Chapter 9 - Catholic Public Domain Version

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I am speaking the truth in Christ; I am not lying. My conscience offers testimony to me in the Holy Spirit,
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because the sadness within me is great, and there is a continuous sorrow in my heart.
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For I was desiring that I myself might be anathemized from Christ, for the sake of my brothers, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh.
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These are the Israelites, to whom belongs adoption as sons, and the glory and the testament, and the giving and following of the law, and the promises.
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Theirs are the fathers, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is over all things, blessed God, for all eternity. Amen.
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But it is not that the Word of God has perished. For not all those who are Israelites are of Israel.
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And not all sons are the offspring of Abraham: "For your offspring will be invoked in Isaac."
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In other words, those who are the sons of God are not those who are sons of the flesh, but those who are sons of the Promise; these are considered to be the offspring.
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For the word of promise is this: "I will return at the proper time. And there shall be a son for Sarah."
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And she was not alone. For Rebecca also, having conceived by Isaac our father, from one act,
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when the children had not yet been born, and had not yet done anything good or bad (such that the purpose of God might be based on their choice),
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and not because of deeds, but because of a calling, it was said to her: "The elder shall serve the younger."
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So also it was written: "I have loved Jacob, but I have hated Esau."
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What should we say next? Is there unfairness with God? Let it not be so!
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For to Moses he says: "I will pity whomever I pity. And I will offer mercy to whomever I will pity."
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Therefore, it is not based on those who choose, nor on those who excel, but on God who takes pity.
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For Scripture says to the Pharaoh: "I have raised you up for this purpose, so that I may reveal my power by you, and so that my name may be announced to all the earth."
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Therefore, he takes pity on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
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And so, you would say to me: "Then why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?"
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O man, who are you to question God? How can the thing that has been formed say to the One who formed him: "Why have you made me this way?"
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And does not the potter have the authority over the clay to make, from the same material, indeed, one vessel unto honor, yet truly another unto disgrace?
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What if God, wanting to reveal his wrath and to make his power known, endured, with much patience, vessels deserving wrath, fit to be destroyed,
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so that he might reveal the wealth of his glory, within these vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory?
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And so it is with those of us whom he has also called, not only from among the Jews, but even from among the Gentiles,
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just as he says in Hosea: "I will call those who were not my people, 'my people,' and she who was not beloved, 'beloved,' and she who had not obtained mercy, 'one who has obtained mercy.'
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And this shall be: in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they shall be called the sons of the living God."
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And Isaiah cried out on behalf of Israel: "When the number of the sons of Israel is like the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.
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For he shall complete his word, while abbreviating it out of equity. For the Lord shall accomplish a brief word upon the earth."
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And it is just as Isaiah predicted: "Unless the Lord of hosts had bequeathed offspring, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been made similar to Gomorrah."
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What should we say next? That the Gentiles who did not follow justice have attained justice, even the justice that is of faith.
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Yet truly, Israel, though following the law of justice, has not arrived at the law of justice.
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Why is this? Because they did not seek it from faith, but as if it were from works. For they stumbled over a stumbling block,
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just as it was written: "Behold, I am placing a stumbling block in Zion, and a rock of scandal. But whoever believes in him shall not be confounded."
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