4. What answer did God give him? “I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not worshipped the false god Baal.”
5. It is the same way now: there is a small number left of those whom God has chosen because of his grace.
6. His choice is based on his grace, not on what they have done. For if God's choice were based on what people do, then his grace would not be real grace.
7. What then? The people of Israel did not find what they were looking for. It was only the small group that God chose who found it; the rest grew deaf to God's call.
8. As the scripture says, “God made their minds and hearts dull; to this very day they cannot see or hear.”
9. And David says:“May they be caught and trapped at their feasts;may they fall, may they be punished!