Romans 11:1-10

Contemporary English Version

God Has Not Rejected His People

11 ^(A) Am I saying that God has turned his back on his people? Certainly not! I am one of the people of Israel, and I myself am a descendant of Abraham from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God did not turn his back on his chosen people. Don't you remember reading in the Scriptures how Elijah complained to God about the people of Israel? ³^(B) He said, “Lord, they killed your prophets and destroyed your altars. I am the only one left, and now they want to kill me.”

⁴^(C) But the Lord told Elijah, “I still have 7,000 followers who have not worshiped Baal.” ⁵It is the same way now. God treated the people of Israel with undeserved grace, and so a few of them are still his followers. ⁶This happened because of God's undeserved kindness and not because of anything they have done. It could not have happened except for God's gift of undeserved grace.

⁷This means that only a chosen few of the people of Israel found what all of them were searching for. And the rest of them were stubborn, ⁸^(D) just as the Scriptures say,

“God made them so stupid
that their eyes are blind,
and their ears
are still deaf.”

⁹^(E) Then David said,

“Turn their meals
    into bait for a trap,
so that they will stumble
and be given
    what they deserve.
¹⁰Blindfold their eyes!
    Don't let them see.
Bend their backs
beneath a burden
    that will never be lifted.”