²⁴ “Have you not observed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two clans that he chose’? Thus they have despised my people so that they are no longer a nation in their sight.

² And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of ^(A)Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves?^[a] Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that?” ^3 (B)Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Yes, what they are building—^(C)if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall!” ^4 (D)Hear, O our God, for we are despised. ^(E)Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives.

The Remnant of Israel

11 I ask, then, ^(A)has God rejected his people? By no means! For ^(B)I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham,^[a] a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ^2 (C)God has not rejected his people whom he ^(D)foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? ^3 (E)“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” ⁴ But what is God's reply to him? ^(F)“I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵ So too at the present time there is ^(G)a remnant, chosen by grace. ^6 (H)But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.