1. I say then, Did God cast off his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2. God did not cast off his people which he foreknew. Or wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elijah? how he pleadeth with God against Israel,
3. Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have digged down thine altars: and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4. But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have left for myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
5. Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6. But if it is by grace, it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.
7. What then? That which Israel seeketh for, that he obtained not; but the election obtained it, and the rest were hardened:
8. according as it is written, God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, unto this very day.
9. And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, And a stumblingblock, and a recompense unto them:
10. Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, And bow thou down their back alway.
11. I say then, Did they stumble that they might fall? God forbid: but by their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12. Now if their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
13. But I speak to you that are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I glorify my ministry:
14. if by any means I may provoke to jealousy them that are my flesh, and may save some of them.
15. For if the casting away of them is the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
16. And if the firstfruit is holy, so is the lump: and if the root is holy, so are the branches.
17. But if some of the branches were broken off, and thou, being a wild olive, wast grafted in among them, and didst become partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the olive tree;