1. I say then, Has God cast away his people? Far be the thought. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.
2. God has not cast away his people whom he foreknew. Know ye not what the scripture says in the history of Elias, how he pleads with God against Israel?
3. Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have dug down thine altars; and I have been left alone, and they seek my life.
4. But what says the divine answer to him? I have left to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed knee to Baal.
5. Thus, then, in the present time also there has been a remnant according to election of grace.
6. But if by grace, no longer of works: since otherwise grace is no more grace.
7. What is it then? What Israel seeks for, that he has not obtained; but the election has obtained, and the rest have been blinded,
8. according as it is written, God has given to them a spirit of slumber, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear, unto this day.
9. And David says, Let their table be for a snare, and for a gin, and for a fall-trap, and for a recompense to them:
10. let their eyes be darkened not to see, and bow down their back alway.
11. I say then, Have they stumbled in order that they might fall? Far be the thought: but by their fall there is salvation to the nations to provoke them to jealousy.