²⁸ As regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but as regards election they are beloved for the sake of their ancestors,

¹⁵ yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today.^(A)

⁷ “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples.^{(A) 8} It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.^(B)

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

⁵ to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Christ, who is over all, God blessed forever.^[a] Amen.^(A)

⁴³ “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits.^(A)

The Salvation of the Gentiles

¹¹ So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling^[a] salvation has come to the gentiles, so as to make Israel^[b] jealous.^(A)

⁴⁵ But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy, and blaspheming, they contradicted what was spoken by Paul.^{(A) 46} Then both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you. Since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the gentiles.^(B)