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Romans

About this book
Chapter 11

1 So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not!⁠ For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God 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 demolished your altars; I alone am left, and they are seeking my life!” 4 But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself 7,000 people who have not bent the knee to Baal.”⁠ 5 So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6 And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 7 What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The rest were hardened, 8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and make their backs bend continually.”⁠ 11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous.⁠ 12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring? 13 Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, 14 if somehow I could provoke my people to jealousy and save some of them. 15 For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? 16 If the first portion of the dough offered is holy, then the whole batch is holy, and if the root is holy, so too are the branches. 17 Now if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them and participated in the richness of the olive root,⁠ 18 do not boast over the branches. But if you boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 Then you will say, “The branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” 20 Granted! They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but fear! 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you. 22 Notice therefore the kindness and harshness of God—harshness toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness toward you, provided you continue in his kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. 23 And even they—if they do not continue in their unbelief—will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree? 25 For I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: A partial hardening has happened to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.⁠ 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer will come out of Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. 27 And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.” 28 In regard to the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but in regard to election they are dearly loved for the sake of the fathers.⁠ 29 For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable. 30 Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience, 31 so they too have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. 32 For God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all. 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how unfathomable his ways!⁠ 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? 35 Or who has first given to God that God needs to repay him?⁠ 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen.

Texts in conversation

Compare LXX Psalms 68:24 and Romans 11:10

Septuagint · New Testament

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Summary

Romans 11 uses the Greek Septuagint translation of Psalm 68, which describes God’s enemies with darkened eyes and bent backs. Paul combines this with Isaiah and Deuteronomy to depict the rejection of his message as part of a recurring pattern.

Passages

LXX Psalms 68:24

Septuagint
21 My soul has waited for reproach and misery; and I waited for one to grieve with me, but there was none; and for one to comfort me, but I found none. 22 They gave me also gall for my food, and made me drink vinegar for my thirst. 23 Let their table before them be for a snare, and for a punishment, and for a stumbling block. 24 Let their eyes be darkened that they should not see; and bow down their back continually. 25 Pour out your fierce anger upon them, and let the fury of your anger take hold on them.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Psalms

Romans 11:10

New Testament
8 as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, to this very day.” 9 And David says, “Let their table become a snare and trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; 10 let their eyes be darkened so that they may not see, and make their backs bend continually.” 11 I ask then, they did not stumble into an irrevocable fall, did they? Absolutely not! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make Israel jealous. 12 Now if their transgression means riches for the world and their defeat means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full restoration bring?
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

References

"... As was the case in Romans 10:19-21, so also here each passage plays an important role in shaping Paul’s reading of the other. By means of Isaiah’s (“spirit of stupor”), Paul transmutes Moses’ lament that God has not yet granted Israel an understanding heart into the much stronger claim that God has, in fact, directly caused Israel’s spiritual insensibility. (The wording “eyes such as do not see ... ears such as do not hear” may reflect Paul’s desire to connect this citation with the words of “David” that follow in Romans 11:9-10 (compare Romans 11:10 / Psalm 68:24 LXX) And it is Deuteronomy’s insistence that their blindness persists “to the present day” that gives Paul interpretive leverage to read the description of Isaiah’s opponents in Isaiah 29:10 as a diagnosis of his contemporaries’ failure to believe the gospel ..."
J. Ross Wagner, “Moses and Isaiah in Concert: Paul's Reading of Isaiah and Deuteronomy in the Letter to the Romans,” in "As Those Who Are Taught": The Interpretation of Isaiah from the LXX to the SBL, ed. Claire Mathews McGinnis and Patricia K. Tull, SymS 27 (Atlanta: SBL, 2006), 87–105.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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LXX Psalms 68:24 and Romans 11:10

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