41:8 “You, my servant Israel,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
offspring of Abraham my friend, 3
41:14 Don’t be afraid, despised insignificant Jacob, 4
men of 5 Israel.
I am helping you,” says the Lord,
your protector, 6 the Holy One of Israel. 7
44:1 “Now, listen, Jacob my servant,
Israel whom I have chosen!”
44:2 This is what the Lord, the one who made you, says –
the one who formed you in the womb and helps you:
“Don’t be afraid, my servant Jacob,
Jeshurun, 8 whom I have chosen!
9:6 It is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all those who are descended from Israel are truly Israel, 17 9:7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” 18 9:8 This means 19 it is not the children of the flesh 20 who are the children of God; rather, the children of promise are counted as descendants. 9:9 For this is what the promise declared: 21 “About a year from now 22 I will return and Sarah will have a son.” 23 9:10 Not only that, but when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, 24 our ancestor Isaac – 9:11 even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election 25 would stand, not by works but by 26 his calling) 27 – 9:12 28 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” 29 9:13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 30
9:14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice with God? Absolutely not! 9:15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 31 9:16 So then, 32 it does not depend on human desire or exertion, 33 but on God who shows mercy. 9:17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh: 34 “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may demonstrate my power in you, and that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” 35 9:18 So then, 36 God 37 has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. 38
9:19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 9:20 But who indeed are you – a mere human being 39 – to talk back to God? 40 Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 41 9:21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay 42 one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? 43 9:22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects 44 of wrath 45 prepared for destruction? 46 9:23 And what if he is willing to make known the wealth of his glory on the objects 47 of mercy that he has prepared beforehand for glory – 9:24 even us, whom he has called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? 9:25 As he also says in Hosea:
“I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, 48 ‘My beloved.’” 49
9:26 “And in the very place 50 where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” 51
9:27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children 52 of Israel are as the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved, 9:28 for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth completely and quickly.” 53 9:29 Just 54 as Isaiah predicted,
“If the Lord of armies 55 had not left us descendants,
we would have become like Sodom,
and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” 56