1 I say then, did God cast away His people? Let it not be! For I am also an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin: 2 God did not cast away His people whom He knew before; have you not known—in Elijah—what the Writing says? How he pleads with God concerning Israel, saying, 3 “LORD, they killed Your prophets, and they dug down Your altars, and I was left alone, and they seek my life”; 4 but what does the divine answer say to him? “I left to Myself seven thousand men who did not bow a knee to Ba‘al.” 5 So then also in the present time there has been a remnant according to the [divine] selection of grace; 6 and if by grace, no longer of works, otherwise grace becomes no longer grace; and if of works, it is no longer grace, otherwise work is no longer work. 7 What then? What Israel seeks after, this it did not obtain, and the chosen obtained, and the rest were hardened, 8 according as it has been written: “God gave to them a spirit of deep sleep, eyes not to see, and ears not to hear, to this very day,” 9 and David says, “Let their table become for a snare, and for a trap, and for a stumbling-block, and for a repayment to them; 10 let their eyes be darkened—not to behold, and You always bow down their back.” 11 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; 12 and if their fall [is] the riches of [the] world, and their diminishment the riches of nations, how much more their fullness? 13 For to you I speak—to the nations—inasmuch as I am indeed an apostle of nations, I glorify my ministry; 14 if I will arouse my own flesh to jealousy by any means, and will save some of them, 15 for if the casting away of them [is] a reconciliation of the world, what the reception—if not life out of the dead? 16 And if the first-fruit [is] holy, the lump also; and if the root [is] holy, the branches also. 17 And if certain of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and became a fellow-partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree— 18 do not boast against the branches; and if you boast, you do not bear the root, but the root you! 19 You will say, then, “The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in”; right! 20 By unbelief they were broken off, and you have stood by faith; do not be high-minded, but be fearing; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches—lest perhaps He also will not spare you. 22 Behold, then, goodness and severity of God—on those indeed who fell, severity; and on you, goodness, if you may remain in the goodness, otherwise, you also will be cut off. 23 And those also, if they may not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again; 24 for if you, out of the olive tree, wild by nature, were cut out, and contrary to nature, were grafted into a good olive tree, how much rather will they, who [are] according to nature, be grafted into their own olive tree? 25 For I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, of this secret—that you may not be wise in your own conceits—that hardness in part to Israel has happened until the fullness of the nations may come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved, according as it has been written: “There will come forth out of Zion He who is delivering, and He will turn away impiety from Jacob, 27 and this to them [is] the covenant from Me when I may take away their sins.” 28 As regards, indeed, the good tidings, [they are] enemies on your account; and as regards the [divine] selection—beloved on account of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable; 30 for as you also once did not believe in God, and now found kindness by the unbelief of these, 31 so also these now did not believe, that in your kindness they also may find kindness; 32 for God shut up together the whole to unbelief, that to the whole He might do kindness. 33 O depth of riches, and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and untraceable His ways! 34 For who knew the mind of the LORD? Or who became His counselor? 35 Or who first gave to Him, and it will be given back to him again? 36 Because of Him, and through Him, and to Him [are] all things; to Him [is] the glory—for all ages. Amen.
Romans · Literal Standard Version
Romans 11 Literal Standard Version
Audio: World English Bible (WEB), read by Winfred W. Henson · About the recordings
Cross references (36)
Related passages for each verse, from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge as collected and ranked by readers at OpenBible.info.
- 1 2 Corinthians 11:22; 1 Samuel 12:22; Jeremiah 33:24–26; Philippians 3:5; Acts 26:4
- 2 Psalm 94:14; Romans 8:29–30; 1 Peter 1:2; Acts 3:17; Numbers 16:15
- 3 1 Kings 19:10–18; 1 Kings 18:13; Nehemiah 9:26; Jeremiah 2:30; 1 Kings 18:4
- 4 1 Kings 19:18; Numbers 25:3; Zephaniah 1:4; 2 Kings 10:19–20; Judges 2:13
- 5 Romans 9:27; Ephesians 1:5–6; Romans 9:11; Romans 11:6–7; Romans 11:28
- 6 Galatians 2:21; 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5; Romans 3:27–28; Romans 4:4–5
- 7 Romans 9:18; Romans 11:5; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Romans 11:25; Romans 9:31–32
- 8 Deuteronomy 29:4; Isaiah 29:10; Ezekiel 12:2; Jeremiah 5:21; 2 Corinthians 3:14–15
- 9 Psalm 69:22–23; Psalm 28:4; Deuteronomy 32:13–15; Isaiah 59:18; 1 Timothy 6:17–19
- 10 Psalm 69:23; Deuteronomy 28:64–68; 2 Peter 2:4; Romans 11:8; Romans 1:21
- 11 Acts 13:46–48; Romans 11:31; Romans 10:19; Romans 11:12; Romans 11:14
- 12 Romans 11:25; Colossians 1:27; Romans 11:15; Isaiah 11:11–12:6; Ephesians 3:8
- 13 Acts 9:15; 2 Timothy 1:11–12; Romans 15:16–19; Galatians 1:16; 1 Timothy 2:7
- 14 1 Corinthians 7:16; 1 Timothy 4:16; Romans 9:3; Titus 3:5; 1 Timothy 2:4
- 15 Ephesians 1:10; Romans 5:10–11; Luke 15:24; Romans 11:11–12; 2 Corinthians 5:18–20
- 16 Proverbs 3:9; Ezekiel 44:30; James 1:18; Jeremiah 2:21; Numbers 15:17–21
- 17 Ephesians 2:11–13; Ephesians 3:6; Jeremiah 11:16; John 15:2; Psalm 52:8
- 18 1 Corinthians 10:12; Romans 11:20; Romans 3:27; Ephesians 2:19–20; John 10:16
- 19 Romans 11:23–24; Romans 11:17; Romans 11:11–12
- 20 Romans 12:16; 2 Corinthians 1:24; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Philippians 2:12; 1 Peter 1:17
- 21 Jeremiah 49:12; 2 Peter 2:4–9; Jeremiah 25:29; Romans 8:32; Jude 5
- 22 Hebrews 3:14; Hebrews 3:6; 1 Corinthians 15:2; John 15:2; Revelation 2:5
- 23 2 Corinthians 3:16; Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 23:39
- 24 Romans 11:17–18
- 25 Luke 21:24; 2 Corinthians 3:14–16; Romans 16:25; Romans 12:16; Zechariah 8:20–23
- 26 Isaiah 59:20; Jeremiah 31:31–37; Psalm 14:7; Hosea 3:5; Zechariah 10:6–12
- 27 Jeremiah 31:31–34; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 32:38–40; Ezekiel 36:25–29; Isaiah 43:25
- 28 Deuteronomy 10:15; Deuteronomy 7:7–8; Matthew 21:43; Romans 11:7; Romans 9:5
- 29 Numbers 23:19; Hebrews 7:21; Malachi 3:6; Romans 8:28; Hosea 13:14
- 30 Colossians 3:7; Ephesians 2:1–2; 1 Corinthians 7:25; Romans 11:31; Titus 3:3–7
- 31 Romans 11:25; Romans 11:15; Romans 10:16
- 32 Galatians 3:22; Romans 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:4–6; Romans 3:22; John 1:7
- 33 Job 5:9; Job 11:7–9; Psalm 92:5; Colossians 2:2–3; Romans 2:4
- 34 Isaiah 40:13; 1 Corinthians 2:16; Job 15:8; Job 36:22; Jeremiah 23:18
- 35 Job 41:11; Job 35:7; 1 Corinthians 4:7
- 36 Colossians 1:15–17; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Hebrews 2:10; 1 Timothy 1:17; Romans 16:27
Cross references: OpenBible.info (CC BY), drawn mainly from the public-domain Treasury of Scripture Knowledge. · Sources & licences
What the Fathers said
Passages from the Church Fathers that expound or quote this chapter, verbatim from the public-domain Schaff edition (19th-century English translations).
How these were chosen
“Commentary” is the opening of a homily or exposition on this chapter (John Chrysostom’s homilies, Augustine’s tractates, sermons and expositions of the Psalms). “Quotes” are sentences where the edition’s own footnotes identify a quotation of a verse here, kept only when the wording matches the verse. Only works whose authorship is not in doubt are used. Psalms follow the Hebrew/English numbering (Augustine numbers them as the Septuagint does: his Psalm 50 is Psalm 51 here).
He had said that God did not cast off His people; and to show in what sense He had not cast them off, he takes refuge in the Prophets again.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 11 (1889)
And that the Saviour received first-fruits of those whom He was to save, Paul declared when he said, "And if the first-fruits be holy, the lump is also holy," teaching that the expression "first-fruits" denoted that which is spiritual, but that "the lump" meant us, that is, the animal Church, the lump of which they say He assumed, and blended …
What was it that Thou didst then, O my God, and how unsearchable are the depths of Thy judgments! For when, sore sick of a fever, he long lay unconscious in a death-sweat, and all despaired of his recovery, he was baptized without his knowledge; myself meanwhile little caring, presuming that his soul would retain rather what it had imbibed …
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 1 (1886)
"But yet Paul," one may say, "allows them, saying on this wise, As touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers' sake.'" But tell me, when, and of what things was he discoursing, and to whom?
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 1, vol. 10 (1888)
Thou art transplanted henceforth among the spiritual olive-trees, being grafted from the wild into the good olive-tree, from sins into righteousness, from pollutions into purity.
Read in context · Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, series 2, vol. 7 (1894)