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I say then, did God cast away His people? Let it not be! For I am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin:
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God did not cast away His people whom He knew before; have you not known—in Elijah—what the Writing says? How he pleads with God concerning Israel, saying,
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“LORD, they killed Your prophets, and they dug down Your altars, and I was left alone, and they seek my life”;
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but what does the divine answer say to him? “I left to Myself seven thousand men who did not bow a knee to Ba‘al.”
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So then also in the present time there has been a remnant according to the [divine] selection of grace;
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and if by grace, no longer of works, otherwise grace becomes no longer grace; and if of works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work.
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What then? What Israel seeks after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen obtained, and the rest were hardened,
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according as it has been written: “God gave to them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear, to this very day,”
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and David says, “Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block, and for a repayment to them;
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let their eyes be darkened—not to behold, and You always bow down their back.”
The Ingrafting of the Gentiles
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I say then, did they stumble that they might fall? Let it not be! But by their fall the salvation [is] to the nations, to arouse them to jealousy;
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and if their fall [is] the riches of [the] world, and their diminishment the riches of nations, how much more their fullness?
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For to you I speak—to the nations—inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, I glorify my ministry;
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if I will arouse my own flesh to jealousy by any means, and will save some of them,
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for if the casting away of them [is] a reconciliation of the world, what the reception—if not life out of the dead?
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And if the first-fruit [is] holy, the lump also; and if the root [is] holy, the branches also.
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And if certain of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and became a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree—
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do not boast against the branches; and if you boast, you do not bear the root, but the root you!
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You will say, then, “The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in”; right!
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By unbelief they were broken off, and you have stood by faith; do not be high-minded, but be fearing;
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for if God did not spare the natural branches—lest perhaps He also will not spare you.
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Behold, then, goodness and severity of God—on those indeed who fell, severity; and on you, goodness, if you may remain in the goodness, otherwise, you also will be cut off.
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And those also, if they may not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again;
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for if you, out of the olive tree, wild by nature, were cut out, and contrary to nature, were grafted into a good olive tree, how much rather will they, who [are] according to nature, be grafted into their own olive tree?
All Israel Will Be Saved
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For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, of this secret—that you may not be wise in your own conceits—that hardness in part to Israel has happened until the fullness of the nations may come in;
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and so all Israel will be saved, according as it has been written: “There will come forth out of Zion He who is delivering, and He will turn away impiety from Jacob,
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and this to them [is] the covenant from Me when I may take away their sins.”
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As regards, indeed, the good tidings, [they are] enemies on your account; and as regards the [divine] selection—beloved on account of the fathers;
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for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable;
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for as you also once did not believe in God, and now found kindness by the unbelief of these,
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so also these now did not believe, that in your kindness they also may find kindness;
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for God shut up together the whole to unbelief, that to the whole He might do kindness.
A Hymn of Praise
(Isaiah 40:9–31)
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O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways!
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For who knew the mind of the LORD? Or who became His counselor?
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Or who first gave to Him, and it will be given back to him again?
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Because of Him, and through Him, and to Him [are] all things; to Him [is] the glory—for all ages. Amen.
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