“For I could wish that my selfe were accursed from Christ, for my brethren my kinsemen according to the flesh:”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
9:3 I could wish - Human words cannot fully describe the motions of souls that are full of God. As if he had said, I could wish to suffer in their stead; yea, to be an anathema from Christ in their place. In how high a sense he wished this, who can tell, unless himself had been asked and had resolved the question? Certainly he did not then consider himself at all, but only others and the glory of God. The thing could not be; yet the wish was pious and solid; though with a tacit condition, if it were right and possible.
Ro 9:3 For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ. He could wish this, if that would avail anything, to save his Jewish brethren. In the Revised Version, "accursed" is rendered by the transliterated Greek word "anathema", i.e., rejected from Christ and lost. My brethren. His Jewish brethren, those of the same Jewish stock as himself.