¹So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about 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!” ⁴But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself 7,000 people who have not bent the knee to Baal.” ⁵So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. ⁷What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The rest were hardened, ⁸as it is written,“God gave them a spirit of stupor,eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day.” ⁹And David says,“Let their table become a snare and trap,a stumbling block and a retribution for them; ¹⁰let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see,and make their backs bend continually.”¹¹I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous. ¹²Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring?¹³Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, ¹⁴if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches. ¹⁷Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”²⁰Granted! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! ²¹For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. ²²Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God—harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. ²³And even they—if they do not continue in their unbelief—will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. ²⁴For if you were cut off 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? ²⁵For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. ²⁶And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:“The Deliverer will come out of Zion;he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. ²⁷And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” ²⁸In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers. ²⁹For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. ³⁰Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, ³¹so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. ³²For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all. ³³Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how unfathomable his ways! ³⁴For who has known the mind of the Lord,or who has been his counselor? ³⁵Or who has first given to God that God needs to repay him? ³⁶For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.