1. So I ask you, has God rejected his people? Absolutely not! I’m an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
2. God hasn’t rejected his people, whom he knew in advance. Or don’t you know what the scripture says in the case of Elijah, when he pleads with God against Israel?
3. Lord, they have killed your prophets, and they have torn down your altars. I’m the only one left, and they are trying to take my life.
4. But what is God’s reply to him? I have kept for myself seven thousand people who haven’t bowed their knees to Baal.
5. So also in the present time there is a remaining group by the choice of God’s grace.
6. But if it is by grace, it isn’t by what’s done anymore. If it were, God’s grace wouldn’t be grace.
7. So what? Israel didn’t find what it was looking for. Those who were chosen found it, but the others were resistant.
8. As it is written, God gave them a dull spirit, so that their eyes would not see and their ears not hear, right up until the present day.