1 - I say, then, Did God cast away His people? let it not be! for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin:
2 - God did not cast away His people whom He knew before; have ye not known--in Elijah--what the Writing saith? how he doth plead with God concerning Israel, saying,
3 - `Lord, Thy prophets they did kill, and Thy altars they dug down, and I was left alone, and they seek my life;'
4 - but what saith the divine answer to him? `I left to Myself seven thousand men, who did not bow a knee to Baal.'
5 - So then also in the present time a remnant according to the choice of grace there hath been;
6 - and if by grace, no more of works, otherwise the grace becometh no more grace; and if of works, it is no more grace, otherwise the work is no more work.
7 - What then? What Israel doth seek after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtain, and the rest were hardened,
8 - according as it hath been written, `God gave to them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear,' --unto this very day,
9 - and David saith, `Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block, and for a recompense to them;
10 - let their eyes be darkened--not to behold, and their back do Thou always bow down.'
11 - I say, then, Did they stumble that they might fall? let it not be! but by their fall the salvation <FI>is<Fi> to the nations, to arouse them to jealousy;
12 - and if the fall of them <FI>is<Fi> the riches of a world, and the diminution of them the riches of nations, how much more the fulness of them?
13 - For to you I speak--to the nations--inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, my ministration I do glorify;
14 - if by any means I shall arouse to jealousy mine own flesh, and shall save some of them,
15 - for if the casting away of them <FI>is<Fi> a reconciliation of the world, what the reception--if not life out of the dead?
16 - and if the first-fruit <FI>is<Fi> holy, the lump also; and if the root <FI>is<Fi> holy, the branches also.
17 - And if certain of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wast graffed in among them, and a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree didst become--
18 - do not boast against the branches; and if thou dost boast, thou dost not bear the root, but the root thee!
19 - Thou wilt say, then, `The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in;' right!
20 - by unbelief they were broken off, and thou hast stood by faith; be not high-minded, but be fearing;
21 - for if God the natural branches did not spare--lest perhaps He also shall not spare thee.
22 - Lo, then, goodness and severity of God--upon those indeed who fell, severity; and upon thee, goodness, if thou mayest remain in the goodness, otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off.
23 - And those also, if they may not remain in unbelief, shall be graffed in, for God is able again to graff them in;
24 - for if thou, out of the olive tree, wild by nature, wast cut out, and, contrary to nature, wast graffed into a good olive tree, how much rather shall they, who <FI>are<Fi> according to nature, be graffed into their own olive tree?
25 - For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this secret--that ye may not be wise in your own conceits--that hardness in part to Israel hath happened till the fulness of the nations may come in;
26 - and so all Israel shall be saved, according as it hath been written, `There shall come forth out of Sion he who is delivering, and he shall turn away impiety from Jacob,
27 - and this to them <FI>is<Fi> the covenant from Me, when I may take away their sins.'
28 - As regards, indeed, the good tidings, <FI>they are<Fi> enemies on your account; and as regards the choice--beloved on account of the fathers;
29 - for unrepented of <FI>are<Fi> the gifts and the calling of God;
30 - for as ye also once did not believe in God, and now did find kindness by the unbelief of these:
31 - so also these now did not believe, that in your kindness they also may find kindness;
32 - for God did shut up together the whole to unbelief, that to the whole He might do kindness.
33 - O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
34 - for who did know the mind of the Lord? or who did become His counsellor?
35 - or who did first give to Him, and it shall be given back to him again?
36 - because of Him, and through Him, and to Him <FI>are<Fi> the all things; to Him <FI>is<Fi> the glory--to the ages. Amen.
