Discovery BoxRomans 9:7 
Context9:7 nor are all the children Abraham’s true descendants; rather “through Isaac will your descendants be counted.” 1
Romans 9:9
Context9:9 For this is what the promise declared: 2 “About a year from now 3 I will return and Sarah will have a son.” 4
Romans 9:12-13
Context9:12 5 it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” 6 9:13 just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 7
Romans 9:15
Context9:15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 8
Romans 9:17
Context9:17 For the scripture says to Pharaoh: 9 “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.” 10
1 tn Grk “be called.” The emphasis here is upon God’s divine sovereignty in choosing Isaac as the child through whom Abraham’s lineage would be counted as opposed to Ishmael.
sn A quotation from Gen 21:12.
2 tn Grk “For this is the word of promise.”
3 tn Grk “About this time I will return.” Since this refers to the time when the promised child would be born, it would be approximately a year later.
4 sn A quotation from Gen 18:10, 14.
5 sn Many translations place this verse division before the phrase “not by works but by his calling” (NA27/UBS4, NIV, NRSV, NLT, NAB). Other translations place this verse division in the same place that the translation above does (NASB, KJV, NKJV, ASV, RSV). The translation has followed the latter to avoid breaking the parenthetical statement.
6 sn A quotation from Gen 25:23.
7 sn A quotation from Mal 1:2-3.
8 sn A quotation from Exod 33:19.
9 sn Paul uses a typical rabbinic formula here in which the OT scriptures are figuratively portrayed as speaking to Pharaoh. What he means is that the scripture he cites refers (or can be applied) to Pharaoh.
