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ROMANS 
The Remnant of Israel.*
111I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Of course not!a For
I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.b 2God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3“Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”c 4But what is God’s response to him? “I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt to Baal.”d 5So also at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace.e 6But if by grace, it is no longer because of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.f 7What then? What Israel was seeking it did not attain, but the elect attained it; the rest were hardened,g 8as it is written:
“God gave them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes that should not see
and ears that should not hear,
down to this very day.”h 9And David says:i
“Let their table become a snare and a trap,
a stumbling block and a retribution for them;
10let their eyes grow dim so that they may not see, and keep their backs bent forever.”
Elijah and the Angel by Peter Paul Rubens (1577-16 ).
Elijah was a prophet in Israel over 800 years before Jesus was born. Elijah preached against the evil king Ahab and his wife Jezebel, who encouraged the people of Israel to worship the Canaanite nature god, Baal.
11:1
Benjamin was the youngest son of patriarch Jacob
(also called Israel) and Rachel. His descendants settled between the tribes
of Ephraim and Judah in Palestine.
11:2
Paul evokes the prophet Elijah, who brought the people back from worship of Baal to the worship of the God of Israel (I Kings 17-19).
a. [11:1–2] 1 Sm 12:22; Ps 94:14.
b. [11:1] 2 Cor 11:22; Phil 3:5.
c. [11:3] 1 Kgs 19:10, 14.
d. [11:4] 1 Kgs 19:18.
e. [11:5] 9:27.
f. [11:6] 4:4; Gal 3:18.
g. [11:7] 9:31.
h. [11:8] Dt 29:3; Is 29:10; Mt 13:13–15;
Acts 28:26–27.
i. [11:9–10] Ps 69:23–24; 35:8.
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* [11:1–10] Although Israel has been unfaithful to the prophetic message of the gospel (Rom 10:14–21), God remains faithful to Israel. Proof of the divine delity lies in the existence of Jewish Christians like Paul himself. The unbelieving Jews, says Paul, have been blinded by the Christian teaching concerning the Messiah.