3. “Lord, they have killed Your prophets and destroyed Your altars. I alone am left, and they seek my life”?
4. But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”
5. So then at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
6. And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. But if it is by works, then is it no longer by grace; otherwise work would no longer be work.
7. What then? Israel has not obtained what it was seeking. But the elect obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
8. As it is written: “God has given them a spirit of slumber,eyes that would not seeand ears that would not hear,to this very day.”
9. And David says: “Let their table become a snare and a trap,a stumbling block and a retribution to them.
10. Let their eyes be darkened, so that they may not see,and always bow down their backs.”
11. I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid! But through their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.
12. Now if their transgression means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness mean?
13. For I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14. if somehow I may make my kinsmen jealous and may save some of them.
15. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?