| [1] | I say then, Did God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. |
| [2] | God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or know ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel: |
| [3] | Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. |
| [4] | But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. |
| [5] | Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. |
| [6] | But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. |
| [7] | What then? that which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened: |
| [8] | according as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day. |
| [9] | And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them: |
| [10] | Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their back always. |
| [11] | I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation [is come] unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy. |
| [12] | Now if their fall, is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness? |
| [13] | But I speak to you that are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my ministry; |
| [14] | if by any means I may provoke to jealousy [them that are] my flesh, and may save some of them. |
| [15] | For if the casting away of them [is] the reconciling of the world, what [shall] the receiving [of them be], but life from the dead? |
| [16] | And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump: and if the root is holy, so are the branches. |
| [17] | But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree; |
| [18] | glory not over the branches: but if thou gloriest, it is not thou that bearest the root, but the root thee. |
| [19] | Thou wilt say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. |
| [20] | Well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by thy faith. Be not highminded, but fear: |
| [21] | for if God spared not the natural branches, neither will he spare thee. |
| [22] | Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, God's goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off. |
| [23] | And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again. |
| [24] | For if thou wast cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and wast grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more shall these, which are the natural [branches], be grafted into their own olive tree? |
| [25] | For I would not, brethren, have you ignorant of this mystery, lest ye be wise in your own conceits, that a hardening in part hath befallen Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in; |
| [26] | and so all Israel shall be saved: even as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer; He shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: |
| [27] | And this is my covenant unto them, When I shall take away their sins. |
| [28] | As touching the gospel, they are enemies for your sake: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake. |
| [29] | For the gifts and the calling of God are not repented of. |
| [30] | For as ye in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, |
| [31] | even so have these also now been disobedient, that by the mercy shown to you they also may now obtain mercy. |
| [32] | For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all. |
| [33] | O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past tracing out! |
| [34] | For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? |
| [35] | or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? |
| [36] | For of him, and through him, and unto him, are all things. To him [be] the glory for ever. Amen. |