^11:1So 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. ^11:2God 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? ^11:3“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!”¹^11:4But what was the divine response² to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people³ who have not bent the knee to Baal.”⁴

^11:5So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ^11:6And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. ^11:7What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The⁵ rest were hardened, ^11:8as 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.”⁶

^11:9And David says,

“Let their table become a snare and trap,

a stumbling block and a retribution for them;

^11:10let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see,

and make their backs bend continually.”⁷

^11:11I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall,⁸ did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel⁹ jealous. ^11:12Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration¹⁰ bring?

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Footnotes

1 A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.
2 Grk “the revelation,” “the oracle.”
3 The Greek term here is ἀνήρ (anēr), which only exceptionally is used in a generic sense of both males and females. In this context, it appears to be a generic usage (“people”) since when Paul speaks of a remnant of faithful Israelites (“the elect,” v. 7), he is not referring to males only. It can also be argued, however, that it refers only to adult males here (“men”), perhaps as representative of all the faithful left in Israel.
4 A quotation from 1 Kgs 19:18.
5 Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
6 A quotation from Deut 29:4; Isa 29:10.
7 A quotation from Ps 69:22–23.
8 Grk “that they might fall.”
9 Grk “them”; the referent (Israel, cf. 11:7) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
10 Or “full inclusion”; Grk “their fullness.”