4. But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.”
5. So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.
6. And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
7. What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The rest were hardened,
8. as it is written,“God gave them a spirit of stupor,eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day.”
9. And David says,“Let their table become a snare and trap,a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
10. let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see,and make their backs bend continually.”
11. I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.
12. Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring?
13. Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,
14. if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them.
15. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?
16. If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches.