1I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit 2that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 3For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh 4who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 5of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
6But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel. 7Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.” 8That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. 9For this is a word of promise: “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.” 10Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. 11For 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, 12it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.” 13Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. 17For 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.” 18So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
19You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” 20But 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?” 21Or 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? 22What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— 24us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles? 25As 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.’”
27Isaiah 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;
28for he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness,
because the Lord will make a short work upon the earth.”
29As 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.”
30What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith; 31but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness. 32Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33even 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.”
The term "Phrygia" (literally, parched, dry, barren) geographically refers to a vaguely defined interior region of central-western part of what is now Turkey, or ancient Asia Minor. The term may lack precise geographical boundaries for two reasons - the geographical limits changed dramatically from the original migration of the Phrygians until biblical times, and the term originally referred to a people, not a place. Josephus alleges that this people group originally descended from Japheth, through his son Gomer and grandson Togarmah (Gen 10:3; cf. Ez. 27:14). According to Herodotus, this people group migrated from Thrace, where they were called Bryges, through the Hellespont, as allies of Troy, into a vaguely defined zone in central-western Asia Minor, where they came to be called Phrygians. The exact era of the original migration is not known, but is before the 12th century B.C. The Phrygian language is similar to Greek. Plato, for example, noted the similarity of Greek and Phrygian words in Plato's Cratylus (401a). Neo-Phrygian clearly utilizes the Greek script.
The Phrygians reached their zenith in approximately the 8th century B.C., with the reigns of Gordion and Midas. Midas is depicted in Greek mythology as having the ears of a donkey, and gifted by the gods to turn whatever he touched into gold, including his own children. Later conquered by the Kingdom of Lydia, the region came under Persian control under Cyrus, through Cyrus' defeat of the Lydian King, Croesus, in 546 B.C. Alexander then took the region in 334 B.C., which remained under Alexander's general Seleucus and his descendants' control until the Peace of Apamea in 188 B.C. where Pergamum, under Eumenes II (197-158 B.C.) as an ally of Rome, took control of the region from Antiochus III. The last king of Pergamum ceded his entire kingdom and territories, including Phrygia, to Rome in 133 B.C.
Phrygia, centered around the Lycus River valley, includes the sites of three nearly adjacent cities significantly named in Scripture - Colossae, Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22), and Hieropolis (Col 2:1; 4:13; modern Pammukale).
Three times the term Phrygia appears in the Bible, in Acts, 2:10, 16:6, and 18:23. Additionally, a subscript appended to 1 Timothy 6:21 appears in the Textus Receptus (upon which the KJV derived, hence its appearance in the KJV) stating that 1st Timothy "was written from Laodicea, which is the chiefest city of Phrygia Pacatiana." Pacatiana refers to Phrygia Prima, whose chief city was Laodicea, in distinction to Phrygia Secunda (Salutaris). These two provinces comprised Phrygia as a whole under the Roman imperial administrative rezoning of provinces under Diocletian in about A.D. 295.
Acts 2:10 describes the presence of Phrygians at Pentecost, hearing in their "own language the mighty works of God." During the second missionary journey (Acts 15:36-18:22), Paul passed through Phrygia and Galatia in Acts 16:6. Paul's third missionary journey (Acts 18:23-21:16) begins with his orderly excursion through "all the regions of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the disciples" (Acts 18:23).
Significantly, there was a thriving Jewish population in Phrygia, making the region a logical missionary target for the Apostle Paul (cf. Acts 13-22), who began church-planting enterprises by preaching Christ in the synagogues (as per Acts 13:15). Even in Obadiah's time (cf. vs. 20), around the time of the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C., Jewish exiles resided in the Lydian capital of Sardis (an Aramaic inscription in Sardis matches the Hebrew transliteration of "Sepharad" of Ob. 20). Josephus reports that Seleucus I (312-281 B.C.) granted "full civic rights" to Jews, and moreover, Antiochus II (261 B.C.-246 B.C.) planted Jewish colonies in Ionia, while Antiochus III (222–187 B.C.) ordered his satrap (regional governor) Zeuxis to allow 2000 Jewish families to settle in Phrygia with free cultivable lands and a tax-free status for ten years. Jews of the region paid their half-shekel "temple tax" to support the Temple of Jerusalem, until it was confiscated by Lucius Valerius Flaccus in 62 B.C. (it was reinstituted under Flaccus' successor). The amount of money confiscated by Flaccus indicates a quite large Jewish population in the region. In A.D. 2-3, even Augustus posted a full declaration of Jewish rights in this part of the Empire in Ancyra, the capital of Galatia. Accordingly, Paul targeted a center of Jewish presence and prosperity in his missionary enterprises (cf. Rom 1:16; 9:3).