²⁷ For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation, yet I will not make a full end.^(A)

¹⁸ But even in those days, says the Lord, I will not make a full end of you.^(A)

Israel’s Rejection Is Not Final

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

⁷ What then? Israel has not achieved what it was pursuing. The elect have achieved it, but the rest were hardened,^(E)

²⁷ And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the children of Israel were like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved,^{(A) 28} for the Lord will execute his sentence on the earth quickly and decisively.”^{[a] 29} And as Isaiah predicted,

¹³ Now, while I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face, cried with a loud voice, and said, “Ah Lord God! You are finishing off the remnant of Israel!”^(A)

⁴⁴ Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them or abhor them so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God,^(A)