Romans 11:1-36
11 So I am saying, Did God reject his people? Away with the thought! for I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2 God did not reject his people whom he foreknew. Or do you not know in the story of Elijah what the text says, when he is expostulating with God against Israel
3 “Lord, they killed thy prophets, they demolished thy altars, and I was the only one left, and they are after my life”—
4 but what does the divine voice say to him? “I left myself seven thousand men who did not bend a knee to the Baal.”
5 * Thus then at the present time too there are leavings in accordance with the choice made by grace.
6 * But if it is by grace it is no longer on the basis of deeds, else grace would no longer be grace.
7 * What then? The very thing that Israel is hunting after, this thing it did not win: the chosen ones did win it, but the rest turned callous,
8 as it is written “God gave them a spirit of trance, eyes not to see and ears not to hear, up to this day”;
9 and David says “Let their table become a trap and toils and the bait on a trigger and retribution to them,
10 let their eyes be darkened out of seeing, and break down their back all the time.”
11 So I am saying, Did they stumble in order that they might fall? Away with the thought; but by their falling into offense the foreign nations get salvation to stir their jealousy.
12 But if their falling into offense is wealth to the world and their failure is wealth to the nations, how much more their full coming in!
13 But to you foreigners I say, Then so far as I am an apostle to foreigners I make much of my office
14 * in the hope that I may stir the jealousy of my kindred and save some of them.
15 * For if throwing them overboard means reconciliation for the world, what will taking them in be but life from the dead?
16 And if the piece taken out first is sacred, so is the batch; and if the root is sacred, so are the branches.
17 * And if some of the branches were broken out, and you, being a piece of wild olive, were grafted in among them and came to share with them the root of the olive-tree’s fatness,
18 do not flout the branches; if you do, it is not you that are carrying the root but the root that is carrying you.
19 * Then will you say “Branches were broken out to have me grafted in”?
20 All right: they were broken out by unbelief, and you stand by faith; do not get lofty ideas, but have fears,
21 for if God did not spare the natural branches neither will he spare you.
22 * See, then, a kindness and a rigorousness of God’s: toward those who fell rigorousness, but toward you God’s kindness if you keep in touch with the kindness—else you too will be cut out.
23 And they, if they do not stick to unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again.
24 For if you were cut out of the natural wild tree and grafted unnaturally into a quality tree, how much more shall these, the natural ones, be grafted on their own tree!
25 * For I do not want you to be without the knowledge of this secret, brothers, in order that you may not feel sagacious, that there has come to Israel a partial callousing until the fullness of the nations gets in,
26 and thus all Israel will be saved, as it is written “He will come out of Sion who shall execute deliverance; he will turn away crimes from Jacob;
27 and this is the covenant from me for them, when I remove their sins.”
28 As to the gospel they are enemies on your account, but as to the choice they are dear on account of the fathers;
29 for God’s gracious gifts and his call are not liable to a change of mind.
30 For as you were formerly disobedient to God but now have come to receive mercy by the disobedience of these,
31 so it was that these too were disobedient now in order that by the mercy to you they too may receive mercy.
32 For God locked everybody up into disobedience in order that he may have mercy on everybody.
33 ** O the vastness of God’s wealth in both wisdom and knowledge! how unsearchable are his judgments and how untraceable his courses!
34 “For who has known the Lord’s mind? or who has been adviser to him?”
35 “or who has advanced any sum to him and is to have it paid back?”
36 ** because out of him and through him and into him comes everything. To him be glory forever; amen.
Footnotes
^ 11:5 Lit. with grace’s choice
^ 11:6 Lit. since grace no longer proves to be grace
^ 11:7 Lit. the selection did win it
^ 11:14 Lit. make much of my office if so be I may stir the jealousy of my flesh
^ 11:15 Lit. is reconciliation
^ 11:17 Lit. being wild olive
^ 11:19 Or Then you will say “Branches were broken out to have me grafted in.”
^ 11:22 Lit. since you too will
^ 11:25 Lit. not be sagacious in yourselves
^ 11:33 Lit. O the depth of
^ 11:33 Or wealth and wisdom and knowledge
^ 11:36 Lit. is everything
^ 11:36 Or His is glory
