Romans 11 Then, I ask, has God repudiated his People? Never! Why, I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin!

Moffatt⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹ Then, I ask, has God repudiated his People? Never! Why, I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin! ² God has not repudiated his People, his predestined People! Surely you know what scripture says in the passage called 'Elijah'? You know how he pleads with God against Israel: ³ Lord, they have killed thy prophets, they have demolished thine altars; I alone am left, and they seek my life. ⁴ Yet what is the divine answer? I have left myself seven thousand men who have not knelt to Baal. ⁵ Well, at the present day there is also a remnant, selected by grace. ⁶ Selected by grace, and therefore not for anything they have done; otherwise grace would cease to be grace. ⁷ Now what are we to infer from this? That Israel has failed to secure the object of its quest; the elect have secured it, and the rest have been rendered insensible to it — ⁸ as it is written, God has given them a spirit of torpor, eyes that see not, ears that hear not — down to this very day. ⁹ And David says, Let their table prove a snare and a trap, a pitfall and a retribution for them; ¹⁰ let their eyes be darkened, that they cannot see, bow down their backs for ever. ¹¹ Now I ask, have they stumbled to their ruin? Never! The truth is, that by their lapse salvation has passed to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous. ¹² Well, if their lapse has enriched the world, if their defection is the gain of the Gentiles, what will it mean when they all come in? ¹³ I tell you this, you Gentiles, that as an apostle to the Gentiles I lay great stress on my office, ¹⁴ in the hope of being able to make my fellow-Jews jealous and of managing thus to save some of them. ¹⁵ For if their exclusion means that the world is reconciled to God, what will their admission mean? Why, it will be life from the dead! ¹⁶ If the first handful of dough is consecrated, so is the rest of the lump; if the root is consecrated, so are the branches. ¹⁷ Supposing some of the branches have been broken off, while you have been grafted in like a shoot of wild olive to share the rich growth of the olive-stem, ¹⁸ do not pride yourself at the expense of these branches. Remember, in your pride, the stem supports you, not you the stem. ¹⁹ You will say, "But branches were broken off to let me be grafted in!" ²⁰ Granted. They were broken off — for their lack of faith. And you owe your position to your faith. You should feel awed instead of being uplifted. ²¹ For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either. ²² Consider both the kindness and the severity of God; those who fall come under his severity, but you come under the divine kindness, provided you adhere to that kindness. Otherwise, you will be cut away too. ²³ And even the others will be grafted in, if they do not adhere to their unbelief; God can graft them in again. ²⁴ For if you have been cut from an olive which is naturally wild, and grafted, contrary to nature, upon a garden olive, how much more will the natural branches be grafted into their proper olive? ²⁵ To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in. ²⁶ This done, all Israel will be saved — as it is written, The deliverer will come from Sion, he will banish all godlessness from Jacob: ²⁷ this is my covenant with them, when I take their sins away. ²⁸ So far as the gospel goes, they are enemies of God — which is to your advantage; but so far as election goes, they are beloved for their father's sake. ²⁹ For God never goes back upon his gifts and call. ³⁰ Once you disobeyed God, and now you enjoy his mercy thanks to their disobedience; in the same way they at present are disobedient, ³¹ so that they in turn may enjoy the same mercy as yourselves. ³² For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all. ³³ What a fathomless wealth lies in the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable his judgments! How mysterious his methods! ³⁴ Who ever understood the thoughts of the Lord? Who has ever been his counsellor? ³⁵ Who has first given to him and has to be repaid? ³⁶ All comes from him, all lives by him, all ends in him. Glory to him for ever, Amen!