2 The earth was bwithout form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
3 And God said, c“Let there be light,” and there was light.
The Servant of the Lord
1 gListen to me, O coastlands,
and give attention, you peoples from afar.
The Lord called me hfrom the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
2 He made my mouth like a isharp sword;
jin the shadow of his hand he hid me;
he made me a polished arrow;
in his quiver he hid me away.
3 And he said to me, “You are kmy servant,
Israel, lin whom I will be glorified.”1
4 But I said, “I have labored in vain;
I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity;
yet surely my right is with the Lord,
and my recompense with my God.”
5 And now the Lord says,
he who formed me from the womb to be his servant,
to bring Jacob back to him;
and that Israel might be mgathered to him—
for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord,
and my God has become my strength—
6 he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
nI will make you as a olight for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
Greeting
1 Paul, a servant1 of Christ Jesus, acalled to be an apostle, bset apart for the cgospel of God, 2 which he dpromised beforehand ethrough his prophets fin the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was gdescended from David2 according to the flesh 4 and was hdeclared to be the iSon of God jin power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 kthrough whom we have received grace and lapostleship to bring about the mobedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are ncalled to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and ocalled to be psaints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Longing to Go to Rome
8 First, qI thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because ryour faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For sGod is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that twithout ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 uFor I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual vgift to wstrengthen you— 12 that is, that we may xbe mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,3 that I have often intended to come to you (but ythus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some zharvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 aI am under obligation both to Greeks and to bbarbarians,4 cboth to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager dto preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
16 For I am not eashamed of the gospel, for it is the fpower of God for salvation to everyone who believes, gto the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the hrighteousness of God is irevealed from faith for faith,5 as it is written, j“The righteous shall live by faith.”6
