you children of his servant Abraham, you descendants of Jacob, his chosen ones.

他仆人亚伯拉罕的后裔啊！他所拣选的人，雅各的子孙哪！

他僕人亞伯拉罕的後裔啊！他所揀選的人，雅各的子孫哪！

爾曹當追念主所行之奇事、追念主之異跡、並主口宣之判語、原文五節作六節六節作五節

亞伯漢。主之僕。雅谷伯。蒙拔擢。聖祖裔。可不勉。能敬主。庶無忝。

you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.

Remember what he has done, you children of his servant Abraham. Remember it, you people of Jacob, God’s chosen ones.

O offspring of Abraham, his servant, children of Jacob, his chosen ones!

you offspring of Abraham his servant, Jacob’s descendants— his chosen ones.

You descendants of Abraham, His servant, You sons of Jacob, His chosen ones!

O seed of Abraham His servant, You children of Jacob, His chosen ones!

O ye seed of Abraham his servant, Ye children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

you offspring of Abraham His servant, Jacob’s descendants— His chosen ones.

O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.

O children of Abraham, God’s servant, you descendants of Jacob, God’s chosen ones!

you offspring of Abraham, his servant, you children of Jacob, his chosen ones.

I am the God of your father— the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” When Moses heard this, he covered his face because he was afraid to look at God.

For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own special treasure.

“ But now, listen to me, Jacob my servant, Israel my chosen one.The Lord who made you and helps you says: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, O dear Israel, my chosen one.

Let me share in the prosperity of your chosen ones. Let me rejoice in the joy of your people; let me praise you with those who are your heritage.

You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.

“ But as for you, Israel my servant, Jacob my chosen one, descended from Abraham my friend,

They are the people of Israel, chosen to be God’s adopted children. God revealed his glory to them. He made covenants with them and gave them his law. He gave them the privilege of worshiping him and receiving his wonderful promises.Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are their ancestors, and Christ himself was an Israelite as far as his human nature is concerned. And he is God, the one who rules over everything and is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.Well then, has God failed to fulfill his promise to Israel? No, for not all who are born into the nation of Israel are truly members of God’s people!Being descendants of Abraham doesn’t make them truly Abraham’s children. For the Scriptures say,“ Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted,” though Abraham had other children, too.This means that Abraham’s physical descendants are not necessarily children of God. Only the children of the promise are considered to be Abraham’s children.For God had promised,“ I will return about this time next year, and Sarah will have a son.”This son was our ancestor Isaac. When he married Rebekah, she gave birth to twins.But before they were born, before they had done anything good or bad, she received a message from God.( This message shows that God chooses people according to his own purposes;he calls people, but not according to their good or bad works.) She was told,“ Your older son will serve your younger son.”In the words of the Scriptures,“ I loved Jacob, but I rejected Esau.”Are we saying, then, that God was unfair? Of course not!For God said to Moses,“ I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose.”So it is God who decides to show mercy. We can neither choose it nor work for it.For the Scriptures say that God told Pharaoh,“ I have appointed you for the very purpose of displaying my power in you and to spread my fame throughout the earth.”So you see, God chooses to show mercy to some, and he chooses to harden the hearts of others so they refuse to listen.Well then, you might say,“ Why does God blame people for not responding? Haven’t they simply done what he makes them do?”No, don’t say that. Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it,“ Why have you made me like this?”When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction.He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory.And we are among those whom he selected, both from the Jews and from the Gentiles.Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea,“ Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.”And,“ Then, at the place where they were told,‘ You are not my people,’ there they will be called‘ children of the living God.’”And concerning Israel, Isaiah the prophet cried out,“ Though the people of Israel are as numerous as the sand of the seashore, only a remnant will be saved.For the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth quickly and with finality.”And Isaiah said the same thing in another place:“ If the Lord of Heaven’s Armies had not spared a few of our children, we would have been wiped out like Sodom, destroyed like Gomorrah.”

Though you are a lowly worm, O Jacob, don’t be afraid, people of Israel, for I will help you. I am the Lord, your Redeemer. I am the Holy One of Israel.’

For he remembered his sacred promise to his servant Abraham.

For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure.“ The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations!Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.