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 don't you{+} know what the Scripture says of Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:
3 Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have dug down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what does the answer of God say to 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 seeks for, that he did not obtain; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened:
8 according to as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day.
9 And David says, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumbling block, and a recompense to them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow down their back always.
11 I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation [has come] to 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 fullness.
13 But I speak to you{+} who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my service;
14 if by any means I may provoke to jealousy [those who are] my flesh, and may save some of them.
15 For if the casting away of them [is] the reconciling of the world, what [will] the receiving [of them be], but life from the dead?
16 And if the first fruit 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 you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them, and became copartners with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree;
18 do not glory over the branches: but if you glory, it is not you that bear the root, but the root you.
19 You will say then, Branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
20 Very well; by their unbelief they were broken off, and you stand by your faith. Don't be highminded, but fear:
21 for if God didn't spare the natural branches, lest neither will he spare you.
22 See then the goodness and severity of God: toward those who fell, severity; but toward you, God's goodness, if you continue in his goodness: otherwise you also will be cut off.
23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree; how much more will these, which are the natural [branches], be grafted into their own olive tree.
25 For I would not, brothers, have you{+} ignorant of this mystery, lest you{+} be wise in your{+} own conceits, that a hardening in part has befallen Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;
26 and so all Israel will be saved: even as it is written, There will come out of Zion the Deliverer; He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 And this is my covenant to them, When I will take away their sins.
28 As concerning the good news, they are enemies for your{+} sake: but as concerning 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 you{+} 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 has shut up all to disobedience, that he might have mercy on all.
33 Oh 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 has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?
35 Or who has first given to him, and it will be recompensed to him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him [be] the glory forever. Amen.