Romans 9:25-30

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, ¹  ‘My beloved.’” ² 

9:26 “And in the very place ³  where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” ⁴ 

9:27 And Isaiah cries out on behalf of Israel, “Though the number of the children ⁵  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.” ⁶  9:29 Just ⁷  as Isaiah predicted,

“If the Lord of armies ⁸  had not left us descendants,

we would have become like Sodom,

and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ⁹ 

Israel’s Rejection Culpable

9:30 What shall we say then? – that the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness obtained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith,

[9:25]  ¹ tn Grk “and her who was not beloved, ‘Beloved.’”

[9:25]  ² sn A quotation from Hos 2:23.

[9:26]  ³ tn Grk “And it will be in the very place.”

[9:26]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Hos 1:10.

[9:27]  ⁵ tn Grk “sons.”

[9:28]  ⁶ tc In light of the interpretive difficulty of this verse, a longer reading seems to have been added to clarify the meaning. The addition, in the middle of the sentence, makes the whole verse read as follows: “For he will execute his sentence completely and quickly in righteousness, because the Lord will do it quickly on the earth.” The shorter reading is found largely in Alexandrian mss (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), while the longer reading is found principally in Western and Byzantine mss (א² D F G Ψ 33 Ï lat). The longer reading follows Isa 10:22-23 (LXX) verbatim, while Paul in the previous verse quoted the LXX loosely. This suggests the addition was made by a copyist trying to make sense out of a difficult passage rather than by the author himself.

[9:29]  ⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[9:29]  ⁸ tn Traditionally, “Lord of hosts”; Grk “Lord Sabaoth,” which means “Lord of the [heavenly] armies,” sometimes translated more generally as “Lord Almighty.”

[9:29]  ⁹ sn A quotation from Isa 1:9.