¹ EN aquellos dias vino Juan el Bautista predicando en el desierto de Judéa,

² Y diciendo: Arrepentíos, que el reino de los cielos se ha acercado.

³ Porque este es aquel del cual fué dicho por el profeta Isaías, que dijo: Voz de uno que clama en el desierto: Aparejad el camino del Señor, enderezad sus veredas.

⁴ Y tenia Juan su vestido de pelos de camellos, y una cinta de cuero alrededor de sus lomos, y su comida era langostas, y miel silvestre.

⁵ Entónces salia á el Jerusalem y toda Judéa, y toda la provincia de alrededor del Jordan;

⁶ Y eran bautizados de él en el Jordan, confesando sus pecados.

⁷ Y viendo él muchos de los Fariséos y de los Saducéos, que venian á su bautismo, decíales: Generacion de víboras, ¿quién os ha enseñado á huir de la ira que vendrá?

⁸ Haced pues frutos dignos de arrepentimiento;

⁹ Y no penseis decir dentro de vosotros: A Abraham tenemos por padre: porque yo os digo, que puede Dios despertar hijos á Abraham aun de estas piedras.

¹⁰ Ahora, ya tambien la segur está puesta á la raiz de los árboles; y todo árbol que no hace buen fruto, es cortado y echado en el fuego.

¹¹ Yo á la verdad os bautizo en agua para arrepentimiento: mas el que viene tras mí, mas poderoso es que yo; los zapatos del cual yo no soy digno de llevar: él os bautizará en Espíritu Santo, y [en] fuego.

¹² Su aventador en su mano [está,] y aventará su era; y allegará su trigo en el alfolí, y quemará la paja en fuego que nunca se apagará.

¹³ Entónces Jesus vino de Galiléa á Juan al Jordan, para ser bautizado de él.

¹⁴ Mas Juan lo resistia mucho, diciendo: Yo he menester ser bautizado de tí, ¿y tu vienes á mí?

¹⁵ Empero respondiendo Jesus le dijo: Deja ahora: porque así nos conviene cumplir toda justicia. Entónces le dejó.

¹⁶ Y Jesus despues que fué bautizado, subió luego del agua: y hé aquí los cielos le fueron abiertos, y vió al Espíritu de Dios que descendia, como paloma, y venia sobre el,

¹⁷ Y hé aquí una voz de los cielos que decia: Este es mi Hijo amado, en el cual tengo contentamiento.

¹ I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,

² that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.

³ For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers' sake, my relatives according to the flesh,

⁴ who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;

⁵ of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.

⁶ But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.

⁷ Neither, because they are Abraham's seed, are they all children. But, "In Isaac will your seed be called."

⁸ That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.

⁹ For this is a word of promise, "At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son."

¹⁰ Not only so, but Rebecca also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.

¹¹ For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,

¹² it was said to her, "The elder will serve the younger."

¹³ Even as it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."

¹⁴ What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!

¹⁵ For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."

¹⁶ So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.

¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

¹⁸ So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.

¹⁹ You will say then to me, "Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?"

²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, "Why did you make me like this?"

²¹ Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?

²² What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath made for destruction,

²³ and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,

²⁴ us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

²⁵ As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved."

²⁶ "It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' There they will be called 'children of the living God.'"

²⁷ Isaiah cries concerning Israel, "If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;

²⁸ for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth."

²⁹ As Isaiah has said before, "Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah."

³⁰ What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn't follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;

³¹ but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn't arrive at the law of righteousness.

³² Why? Because they didn't seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;

³³ even as it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed."