⁹ For this is what the promise said, About this time [next year] will I return and Sarah shall have a son.^(A)

¹⁰ And not only that, but this too: Rebecca conceived [two sons under exactly the same circumstances] by our forefather Isaac,

¹¹ And the children were yet unborn and had so far done nothing either good or evil. Even so, in order further to carry out God’s purpose of selection (election, choice), which depends not on works or what men can do, but on Him Who calls [them],

¹² It was said to her that the elder [son] should serve the younger [son].^(B)