Bible Strands
Romans 9:29
It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Roman church while explaining God’s sovereign choice in salvation history. He cites Isaiah to demonstrate that Israel’s continued existence as a people depends entirely on divine mercy rather than human merit.
The words — προείρηκεν (proeirēken) = has foretold; Ἠσαΐας (Ēsaïas) = Isaiah. Paul uses these terms to ground his theological argument in established prophetic precedent.
The thread — The quotation originates in Isaiah 1:9, where the prophet declares that Judah’s survival depends on the Lord of Hosts leaving descendants. Paul also references the Sodom and Gomorrah imagery used in Amos 4:11 and Isaiah 13:19 to illustrate the severity of divine judgment.
Why it lands — The text states that without divine intervention, Israel would have faced complete destruction like Sodom and Gomorrah. It requires the reader to acknowledge that any remaining hope for God’s people rests solely on God’s decision to spare them.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And as Esaias said before, Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had been as Sodoma, and been made like unto Gomorrha.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 1:9 Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 13:19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Amos 4:11 “Some of you I overthrew as I overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a firebrand snatched from a blaze, yet you did not return to Me,” declares the LORD.
- James 5:4 Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.
- Jeremiah 49:18 As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.
- Jeremiah 50:40 As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah along with their neighbors,” declares the LORD, “no one will dwell there; no man will abide there.
- Genesis 19:24 Then the LORD rained down sulfur and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens.
- Deuteronomy 29:23 All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.
- 2 Peter 2:6 if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes as an example of what is coming on the ungodly;
- Jude 1:7 In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.