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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:
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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,
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`Lord, Thy prophets they did kill, and Thy altars they dug down, and I was left alone, and they seek my life;'
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but what saith the divine answer to him? `I left to Myself seven thousand men, who did not bow a knee to Baal.'
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So then also in the present time a remnant according to the choice of grace there hath been;
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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.
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What then? What Israel doth seek after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtain, and the rest were hardened,
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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,
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and David saith, `Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block, and for a recompense to them;
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let their eyes be darkened — not to behold, and their back do Thou always bow down.'
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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 the fall of them [is] the riches of a world, and the diminution of them the riches of nations, how much more the fulness of them?
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For to you I speak — to the nations — inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, my ministration I do glorify;
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if by any means I shall arouse to jealousy mine own flesh, and shall 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 thou, being a wild olive tree, wast graffed in among them, and a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree didst become —
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do not boast against the branches;
and if thou dost boast, thou dost not bear the root, but the root thee!
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Thou wilt say, then, `The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in;' right!
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by unbelief they were broken off, and thou hast stood by faith;
be not high-minded, but be fearing;
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for if God the natural branches did not spare — lest perhaps He also shall not spare thee.
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Lo, then, goodness and severity of God — upon those indeed who fell, severity;
and upon thee, goodness, if thou mayest remain in the goodness, otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off.
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And those also, if they may not remain in unbelief, shall be graffed in, for God is able again to graff them in;
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for if thou, out of the olive tree, wild by nature, wast cut out, and, contrary to nature, wast graffed into a good olive tree, how much rather shall they, who [are] according to nature, be graffed into their own olive tree?
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For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, of this secret — that ye may not be wise in your own conceits — that hardness in part to Israel hath happened till the fulness of the nations may come in;
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and so all Israel shall be saved, according as it hath been written, `There shall come forth out of Sion he who is delivering, and he shall 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 choice — beloved on account of the fathers;
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for unrepented of [are] the gifts and the calling of God;
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for as ye also once did not believe in God, and now did find 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 did shut up together the whole to unbelief, that to the whole He might do kindness.
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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 did know the mind of the Lord? or who did become His counsellor?
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or who did first give to Him, and it shall be given back to him again?
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because of Him, and through Him, and to Him [are] the all things;
to Him [is] the glory — to the ages.
Amen.