God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel, saying,
Parallel translations
- WEB God didn’t reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don’t you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:
- KJV God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
- BSB God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel:
- ESV God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?
- NASB God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?
- NLT No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning. Do you realize what the Scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said,
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Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God has not rejected Israel, the people he foreknew; Paul recalls Elijah, who thought he alone was faithful.
Overview
Paul answers his own question from verse 1 by appealing to God's prior, electing love ('foreknew') for his people. He introduces the example of Elijah (1 Kings 19), who pleaded against Israel believing himself the last faithful one. The verse sets up the principle that even in widespread unbelief God preserves a faithful remnant, which guards against the despairing conclusion that God's purposes have failed.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Ps 94:14For Yahweh won’t reject his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
- Rom 8:29–30For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
- 1 Pet 1:2according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.
- Acts 3:17“Now, brothers, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers.
- Num 16:15Moses was very angry, and said to Yahweh, “Don’t respect their offering. I have not taken one donkey from them, neither have I hurt one of them.”
- Gen 44:15Joseph said to them, “What deed is this that you have done? Don’t you know that such a man as I can indeed divine?”
- Exod 32:1When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”
- Rom 9:23and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
- Acts 7:40saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’
- Acts 13:48As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
- Rom 9:6But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
- Neh 9:30Yet many years you put up with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet would they not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.
- Heb 1:1God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
- John 4:11The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. So where do you get that living water?
- Acts 15:18All of God’s works are known to him from eternity.’
- John 4:1–3Therefore when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John
- Jer 18:19–23Give heed to me, Yahweh, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.
- Luke 4:1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness
- Phil 1:22But if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work; yet I don’t know what I will choose.
- 1 Cor 6:2Don’t you know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
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Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 11:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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