| 1 | 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. |
| 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? |
| 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.” |
| 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. |
| 7 | What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, |
| 8 | as it is written, “God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” |
| 9 | And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; |
| 10 | let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs forever bent.” |
| 11 | So I ask, have they stumbled so as to fall? By no means! But through their stumbling salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. |
| 12 | Now if their stumbling means riches for the world, and if their defeat means riches for Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! |
| 13 | Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry |
| 14 | in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. |
| 15 | For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead! |
| 16 | If the part of the dough offered as first fruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; and if the root is holy, then the branches also are holy. |
| 17 | But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in their place to share the rich root of the olive tree, |
| 18 | do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember that it is not you that support the root, but the root that supports you. |
| 19 | You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” |
| 20 | That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand only through faith. So do not become proud, but stand in awe. |
| 21 | For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. |
| 22 | Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. |
| 23 | And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. |
| 24 | For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree. |
| 25 | So that you may not claim to be wiser than you are, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand this mystery: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. |
| 26 | And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, “Out of Zion will come the Deliverer; he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.” |
| 27 | “And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” |
| 28 | As regards the gospel they are enemies of God for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved, for the sake of their ancestors; |
| 29 | for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. |
| 30 | Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, |
| 31 | so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. |
| 32 | For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all. |
| 33 | O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! |
| 34 | “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” |
| 35 | “Or who has given a gift to him, to receive a gift in return?” |
| 36 | For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen. |