Letters to the Churches

but I say, Did they not hear? yes, indeed--`to all the earth their voice went forth, and to the ends of the habitable world their sayings.'

But I say, Did not Israel know? first Moses saith, `I will provoke you to jealousy by that which is not a nation; by an unintelligent nation I will anger you,'

and Isaiah is very bold, and saith, `I was found by those not seeking Me; I became manifest to those not inquiring after Me;'

and unto Israel He saith, `All the day I did stretch out My hands unto a people unbelieving and gainsaying.'

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:

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,

`Lord, Thy prophets they did kill, and Thy altars they dug down, and I was left alone, and they seek my life;'

but what saith the divine answer to him? `I left to Myself seven thousand men, who did not bow a knee to Baal.'

So then also in the present time a remnant according to the choice of grace there hath been;

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.

What then? What Israel doth seek after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen did obtain, and the rest were hardened,

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,

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;

let their eyes be darkened--not to behold, and their back do Thou always bow down.'

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;

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?

For to you I speak--to the nations--inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, my ministration I do glorify;

if by any means I shall arouse to jealousy mine own flesh, and shall save some of them,

for if the casting away of them is a reconciliation of the world, what the reception--if not life out of the dead?

and if the first-fruit is holy, the lump also; and if the root is holy, the branches also.

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--

do not boast against the branches; and if thou dost boast, thou dost not bear the root, but the root thee!

Thou wilt say, then, `The branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in;' right!

by unbelief they were broken off, and thou hast stood by faith; be not high-minded, but be fearing;

for if God the natural branches did not spare--lest perhaps He also shall not spare thee.