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Romanos 9

ARC · Chapter 9/16

1Em Christo digo a verdade, não minto (dando-me testemunho juntamente a minha consciencia no Espirito Sancto):

2Que tenho grande tristeza e continua dôr no meu coração.

3Porque eu mesmo desejara ser separado de Christo, por amor de meus irmãos, que são meus parentes segundo a carne;

4Que são israelitas, dos quaes é a adopção de filhos, e a gloria, e os concertos, e a lei, e o culto, e as promessas:

5Dos quaes são os paes, e dos quaes é Christo segundo a carne, o qual é Deus sobre todos, bemdito eternamente: Amen.

6Não, porém, que a palavra de Deus haja faltado, porque nem todos os que são d'Israel são israelitas;

7Nem por serem descendencia de Abrahão são todos filhos; mas: Em Isaac será chamada a tua descendencia.

8Isto é: não são os filhos da carne que são filhos de Deus, mas os filhos da promessa são contados como descendencia.

9Porque a palavra da promessa é esta: Por este tempo virei, e Sarah terá um filho.

10E não sómente esta, mas tambem Rebecca, quando concebeu de um, de Isaac, nosso pae;

11Porque, não tendo elles ainda nascido, nem tendo feito bem ou mal (para que o proposito de Deus, segundo a eleição, ficasse firme, não por causa das obras, mas por aquelle que chamava),

12Foi-lhe dito a ella: O maior servirá o menor.

13Como está escripto: Amei Jacob, e aborreci Esaú.

14Que diremos pois? que ha injustiça da parte de Deus? de maneira nenhuma.

15Pois diz a Moysés: Compadecer-me-hei de quem me compadecer, e terei misericordia de quem eu tiver misericordia.

16De sorte que não é do que quer, nem do que corre, mas de Deus, que se compadece.

17Porque diz a Escriptura a Pharaó: Para isto mesmo te levantei; para em ti mostrar o meu poder, e para que o meu nome seja annunciado em toda a terra.

18De sorte que se compadece de quem quer, e endurece a quem quer.

19Dir-me-has então: Porque se queixa elle ainda? Porquanto, quem resiste á sua vontade?

20Mas antes, ó homem, quem és tu, que contestas contra Deus? Porventura a coisa formada dirá ao que a formou: Porque me fizeste assim?

21Ou não tem o oleiro poder sobre o barro, para da mesma massa fazer um vaso para honra e outro para deshonra?

22E que direis se Deus, querendo mostrar a sua ira, e dar a conhecer o seu poder, supportou com muita paciencia os vasos da ira, preparados para perdição;

23Para que tambem désse a conhecer as riquezas da sua gloria nos vasos de misericordia, que para gloria já d'antes preparou,

24Os quaes somos nós, a quem tambem chamou, não só d'entre os judeos, mas tambem d'entre os gentios?

25Como tambem diz em Oseas: Chamarei meu povo ao que não era meu povo; e amada á que não era amada.

26E succederá que no logar em que lhes foi dito: Vós não sois meu povo; ahi serão chamados filhos do Deus vivo.

27Tambem Isaias clamava ácerca d'Israel: Ainda que o numero dos filhos d'Israel seja como a areia do mar, o restante será salvo.

28Porque o Senhor consummará e abreviará a sua palavra em justiça; pois fará breve a sua palavra sobre a terra.

29E como antes disse Isaias: Se o Senhor dos Exercitos nos não deixára descendencia, foramos feitos como Sodoma, e seriamos similhantes a Gomorrah.

30Que diremos pois? Que os gentios, que não buscavam a justiça, alcançaram a justiça? Sim, porém a justiça que é pela fé.

31Mas Israel, que buscava a lei da justiça, não chegou á lei da justiça.

32Porque? Porque não foi pela fé, mas como que pelas obras da lei; porque tropeçaram na pedra de tropeço;

33Como está escripto: Eis que eu ponho em Sião uma pedra de tropeço, e uma rocha de escandalo; e todo aquelle que crer n'ella não será confundido.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Paul expresses deep sorrow over the unbelief of Israel, his own people, despite all the blessings they had received. He explains that God's promise has always worked through sovereign election, not merely through physical descent.

Explanation

This chapter opens an important section (chapters 9-11) in which Paul addresses an urgent question for his readers: if Israel was God's chosen people, why did most of them reject the Messiah? He argues that God's promise never depended simply on biological descent (not every child of Abraham was a 'child of the promise'), but on God's sovereign choice. The analogy of the potter and the clay illustrates that God is free to act according to his purposes, something that challenges our human notion of fairness but points to the wisdom of a God who sees beyond what we can see.

Fun facts

  • The analogy of the potter and the clay (verses 20-21) comes directly from Isaiah 29:16 and Jeremiah 18:1-6, where prophets used the same image to describe God's sovereignty over the nations.
  • Paul quotes Hosea 2:23 and 1:10 to show that the inclusion of Gentiles as 'people of God' had already been prophesied centuries earlier, even though Hosea originally spoke about the restoration of Israel.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Romanos 9:1Paul opens a new section of the letter (chapters 9 through 11) with a kind of oath, calling his own conscience and the Holy Spirit as witnesses that he is not exaggerating what he is about to say about Israel.
  2. Romanos 9:2After ending chapter 8 speaking of a love nothing can separate, Paul reveals a deep personal grief: the situation of his own people, who had not yet accepted the gospel.
  3. Romanos 9:3This is a deliberate exaggeration, a hyperbole, to show the intensity of feeling. Paul is not actually asking for this; he is only describing the depth of his sorrow for his own Jewish people, whom he describes right after.
  4. Romanos 9:4This lists Israel’s historic privileges: being called God’s “children,” having his visible presence, the covenants made with the patriarchs, the law received at Sinai, the temple worship, and the messianic promises.
  5. Romanos 9:5This closes the list of privileges with the greatest one: the fathers, and, descending from that same human line, Christ himself — a verse also used to affirm the divinity of Jesus, called here “God over all.”
  6. Romanos 9:6Paul anticipates an obvious objection: if Israel has so many privileges and still rejected the gospel, has God’s promise failed? He says no, opening up an important distinction: not every physical descendant of Israel is “Israel” in the full sense of the promise.
  7. Romanos 9:7Abraham had more than one son, Ishmael and Isaac, but Paul recalls that God’s promise ran specifically through Isaac, not through all his biological descendants. This argument lays the groundwork for him to say, later in the chapter, that not every physical descendant of Israel is automatically included in the promise.
  8. Romanos 9:8This explains that distinction with the example of Abraham: sharing a father in the flesh does not guarantee being an heir of the promise; only the children “of the promise,” like Isaac, count as the promised offspring.
  9. Romanos 9:9This quotes the original promise made to Abraham in Genesis, about Isaac’s miraculous birth, to show that the promised line began through God’s direct intervention, not through the natural order of birth.
  10. Romanos 9:10This moves to the next generation: Rebekah had twins by the same father, Isaac, an even clearer example because there was no difference in mothers involved, as in the earlier case of Sarah and Hagar.
  11. Romanos 9:11This reinforces the central point of the argument: the choice between the twins was made before either of them was born or had done anything, proving it did not depend on either one’s merit, only on God’s decision.
  12. Romanos 9:12This quotes the promise made to Rebekah in Genesis, which reversed the natural order of importance between brothers by saying the elder would serve the younger.
  13. Romanos 9:13This is a quotation from the prophet Malachi, and in that kind of Hebrew idiom, “love” and “hate” were a common way of expressing preference and choice, not necessarily hatred in the strong sense the word carries today. Paul uses the quotation to speak of God’s choice, not of the character of the two brothers.
  14. Romanos 9:14A new question in the dialogue style already used earlier in the letter: is this choice of God, which seems arbitrary, unjust? Paul forcefully rejects the idea.
  15. Romanos 9:15This quotes God’s answer to Moses in the book of Exodus: having mercy is a decision that belongs to God alone, not an obligation he owes to anyone.
  16. Romanos 9:16A direct conclusion from the previous quotation: obtaining God’s mercy does not depend on a person’s effort or will; it depends on God’s decision to show it.
  17. Romanos 9:17This brings up the example of Pharaoh from Exodus, used by God even in his resistance to demonstrate power and spread his name throughout the earth.
  18. Romanos 9:18This sums up the two previous examples, Moses and Pharaoh: God has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills, without satisfying human standards of fairness.
  19. Romanos 9:19This anticipates another obvious objection: if God decides everything this way, why still find fault with anyone for resisting his will? Paul will answer with the image of the potter in the next verse.
  20. Romanos 9:20Paul answers an objection he himself imagines someone raising, about God’s right to choose whomever he wills. This topic still divides readers and churches considerably today; the intent here is only to explain the image, not to settle the debate.
  21. Romanos 9:21The image of the potter shaping clay vessels already appeared in prophets like Jeremiah, used to speak of the craftsman’s right to decide the shape and use of each piece he made. Paul uses the same scene to illustrate his argument about God’s freedom, without spelling out here what that means for each individual.
  22. Romanos 9:22This continues the reasoning from the image of the potter (from the previous verse): even if God patiently endures people fitted for destruction, this serves a purpose, showing both his wrath and his power.
  23. Romanos 9:23The other side of the same coin: that patience also serves to reveal the riches of God’s glory upon those prepared beforehand to receive it.
  24. Romanos 9:24Paul applies the argument directly to the readers: they are exactly these “vessels of mercy,” called from among both Jews and Gentiles.
  25. Romanos 9:25This quotes the prophet Hosea, who originally spoke of the people of Israel being restored after a period of rejection, to also describe the inclusion of the Gentiles as “God’s people.”
  26. Romanos 9:26This continues the quotation from Hosea: in the very place where a people had been declared “not my people,” they would come to be called “children of the living God.”
  27. Romanos 9:27This now brings in the prophet Isaiah, who had already foreseen that not all the people of Israel, numerous as the sand of the sea though they were, would be saved — only a “remnant.”
  28. Romanos 9:28This continues the quotation from Isaiah about that judgment: God’s word against the people would be fulfilled completely and without delay.
  29. Romanos 9:29Another quotation from Isaiah, now comparing Israel’s situation to Sodom and Gomorrah, cities utterly destroyed — only God’s intervention kept Israel from meeting the same end.
  30. Romanos 9:30A rhetorical question that sums up the chapter: Gentiles who were not even seeking God’s righteousness ended up attaining it, but by faith, not by merit.
  31. Romanos 9:31In direct contrast, Israel, which strove after that same righteousness by following the law, did not manage to arrive there.
  32. Romanos 9:32This explains the reason for Israel’s failure: seeking righteousness by their own works instead of by faith made the people stumble at the very point that was meant to lead to faith, compared here to a stone in the road.
  33. Romanos 9:33This quotes Isaiah about a “stumblingstone” laid in Zion: the same stone that makes some stumble is the same one others trust in without being put to shame — a reference understood as pointing to Christ.

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