Chapter VIII

THE SALVATION OF BELIEVING JEWS AND THE CALLING OF THE GENTILES.

1 [11:1]I SAY then, has God cast away his people? By no means; for I also am an Israelite, of the race of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. [11:2]God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Know you not what the Scripture says in Elijah, how he intercedes with God against Israel? [11:3]Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have dug down thy altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life. [11:4]But what says the response to him? I have reserved for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal. [11:5]So then also at the present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace; [11:6] but if by grace, no longer by works; for otherwise grace is no longer grace; but if by works, it is no longer grace; for otherwise a work is no longer a work. [11:7]What then? What Israel seeks, this it did not obtain, but the election obtained; and the rest were hardened,-- [11:8]as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear--to this day. [11:9]And David says, Let their table become a trap and a snare and an offense and a stumbling block to them; [11:10]let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back always.

2 [11:11]I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? By no means; but by their fall the nations have salvation to excite them to emulation. [11:12] But if their fall is the riches of the world, and their diminution the riches of nations, how much more will their fullness be. [11:13]For I speak to you, gentiles. Inasmuch as I am an apostle of the gentiles, I glorify my ministry, [11:14]if perhaps I may excite my flesh [race] to emulation and save some of them. [11:15]For if their falling away is the reconciling of the world, what will their recovery be but life from the dead? [11:16]And if the first fruit is holy, the mass is also; and if the root is holy, the branches also are.

3 [11:17]But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became a partaker of the root and excellence of the olive, [11:18]boast not against the branches; but if you boast, you bear not the root, but the root you. [11:19]You will say then, The branches were broken off that I might be grafted in. [11:20]Well; they were broken off by unbelief, and you stand by faith. Be not high-minded, but fear; [11:21]for if God spared not the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. [11:22]See then the goodness and severity of God; towards those that fell, severity, but towards you, the goodness of God, if you continue in goodness, for otherwise you also will be cut off. [11:23]And they, if they continue not in unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. [11:24] For if you have been cut from an olive wild by nature, and grafted contrary to nature into a good olive, how much more shall they according to nature be grafted into their own olive.

4 [11:25]For I wish you not to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery; that you may not be wise in your own conceit. For hardness in part has come upon Israel, till the fullness of the gentiles shall come in, [11:26]and so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, A deliverer shall come from Zion, he shall turn away impiety from Jacob. [11:27]And this is the promise to them from me, when I take away their sins. [11:28]As to the gospel, they are enemies on your account, but as to the election, they are beloved on account of the fathers; [11:29]for the gifts and calling of God are without a change of mind. [11:30]For as you once disobeyed God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience, [11:31]so also they now have disobeyed that they may obtain mercy by your mercy. [11:32] For God has concluded all in disobedience that he may have mercy on all. [11:33] O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways can not be explored! [11:34]For who knew the mind of the Lord? or who was his counsellor? [11:35]or who first gave to him, and it shall be repaid him? [11:36]For of him and through him, and in him are all things; to him be glory forever; amen.