9:12a

Some English versions place the words of 9:12a at the end of 9:11c. However, the Greek NT 5 has the words of 9:12a at the beginning of 9:12. The Berean Standard Bible follows this guidance. If the major language translation has it there, you may want to put your translation of 9:12a there.

not by works but by Him who calls: In some languages it is more natural to have the by part of this phrase before the not by reason. And some languages will use “and” instead of but. For example:

by him who calls and not by works

works: Here this word refers to actions or deeds, not things produced by a job or paid work. Here it refers to the actions or deeds of people, not God’s.

calls: Here the word calls means “chooses to be given a special benefit or purpose.” God chose Jacob to begin the nation of Israel. See how you translated this word in 1:6 or 8:28.

9:12b

she was told: This clause is passive. God spoke to her. Some languages must use an active clause here. For example:

⌊God/he⌋ told her

This clause introduces a quote from Scripture. Some language translations always introduce quotes from Scripture in their translations. For example:

⌊In the Holy Book,⌋ she was told
-or-

⌊In Scripture,⌋ ⌊God/he⌋ told her

The older will serve the younger: This sentence is found in Genesis 25:23. In the Hebrew culture (and many other cultures) the older sibling ruled the younger siblings. But God, to show his choice, would have the older sibling, Esau, server the younger sibling, Jacob, instead.

If you indicate the location of quotes from the Old Testament with cross-references, you may want to do so here.

serve: Here this word refers to doing the work of someone else because he or she was told to do it. Jacob’s descendants would make Esau’s descendants their servants. Here are other ways to translate this word:

be servant (Revised English Bible)
-or-
the younger one would rule his brother

General Comment on 9:11a–12b

It may be clearer in some languages to have the choice (9:12b) before the circumstances (9:11a–b) and purpose of the timing (9:11c–12:a). For example:

11-12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger,” in order that God’s plan of election might stand, not by works but by him who calls, even though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad
-or-

11-12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger,” in order that God’s plan of election might stand. That choice was not made by works but by him who calls, even though the twins were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad.

Note that if you do this, you will need to combine the verse references into one reference.

© 2020 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.