1. I say, then, Did God cast away His people? let it not be! for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin:
2. God did not cast away His people whom He knew before; have ye not known--in Elijah--what the Writing saith? how he doth plead with God concerning Israel, saying,
3. `Lord, Thy prophets they did kill, and Thy altars they dug down, and I was left alone, and they seek my life;'
4. but what saith the divine answer to him? `I left to Myself seven thousand men, who did not bow a knee to Baal.'
5. So then also in the present time a remnant according to the choice of grace there hath been;
6. and if by grace, no more of works, otherwise the grace becometh no more grace; and if of works, it is no more grace, otherwise the work is no more work.
7. What then? What Israel doth seek after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtain, and the rest were hardened,
8. according as it hath been written, `God gave to them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear,' --unto this very day,