Israel Is Not Cast Away

11 I say then, God has not (A)rejected His people, has He? (B)May it never be! For (C)I too am an Israelite, [a]a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God (D)has not rejected His people whom He (E)foreknew. (F)Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, (G)they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.” But what [b]is the divine response to him? “(H)I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time (I)a remnant according to God’s [c]gracious choice. But (J)if it is by grace, it is no longer [d]on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.

What then? What (K)Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but [e]those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were (L)hardened; just as it is written,

(M)God gave them a spirit of stupor,
Eyes to see not and ears to hear not,
Down to this very day.”

And David says,

(N)Let their table become a snare and a trap,
And a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
10 (O)Let their eyes be darkened to see not,
And bend their backs forever.”

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Footnotes

  1. Romans 11:1 Lit of the seed of Abraham
  2. Romans 11:4 Lit says
  3. Romans 11:5 Lit choice of grace
  4. Romans 11:6 Lit out of
  5. Romans 11:7 Lit the election