Just as you who formerly disobeyed God have now received mercy through their disobedience,
Parallel translations
- WEB For as you in time past were disobedient to God, but now have obtained mercy by their disobedience,
- KJV For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
- NKJV For as you were once disobedient to God, yet have now obtained mercy through their disobedience,
- NASB For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience,
- NLT Once, you Gentiles were rebels against God, but when the people of Israel rebelled against him, God was merciful to you instead.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
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
Gentiles, once disobedient, have now received mercy because of Israel's disobedience.
Overview
Paul traces the interplay of disobedience and mercy: Gentiles, formerly disobedient to God, obtained mercy through the occasion created by Israel's unbelief. This sets up a parallel in the next verse about Israel receiving mercy in turn. It underscores that all salvation is a matter of unmerited mercy, never deserved standing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Col 3:7When you lived among them, you also used to walk in these ways.
- Eph 2:1–2And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
- 1 Cor 7:25Now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
- 2 Cor 4:1Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry, we do not lose heart.
- Titus 3:3–7For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
- 1 Cor 6:9–11Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,
- Rom 11:31so they too have now disobeyed, in order that they too may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to you.
- 1 Pet 2:10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- Eph 2:19–21Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,
- Eph 2:12–13remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.
- 1 Tim 1:18Timothy, my child, I entrust you with this command in keeping with the previous prophecies about you, so that by them you may fight the good fight,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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 11:30 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.