kind of favoritism (7:7; 9:4f.). Unfortunately, the very notion of divine election is still frequently caricatured and dismissed by Christians as self-selection dressed up as divine will, or, worse, divine favoritism. The statement of God’s love for Israel in verse 15 is bounded by (and so to be understood in relation to) affirmations of God’s ownership of the whole earth (v. 14) on the one side, and of God’s impartiality (v. 17) on the other. It should not be pulled out of that context and defined