1 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:
`Hast thou not considered what this people have spoken, saying: The two families on which Jehovah fixed, He doth reject them, And my people they despise -- So that they are no more a people before them! Thus said Jehovah: If My covenant `is' not daily and nightly, The statutes of heaven and earth I have not appointed -- Also the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, I reject, Against taking from his seed rulers For the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, For I turn back `to' their captivity, and have pitied them.'
If My statutes they pollute, And My commands do not keep, I have looked after with a rod their transgression, And with strokes their iniquity, And My kindness I break not from him, Nor do I deal falsely in My faithfulness. I profane not My covenant, And that which is going forth from My lips I change not. Once I have sworn by My holiness, I lie not to David, His seed is to the age, And his throne `is' as the sun before Me, As the moon it is established -- to the age, And the witness in the sky is stedfast. Selah.
If these statutes depart from before Me, An affirmation of Jehovah, Even the seed of Israel doth cease From being a nation before Me all the days. Thus said Jehovah: If the heavens above be measured, And the foundations of earth below searched, Even I kick against all the seed of Israel, For all that they have done, An affirmation of Jehovah.
Lo, the eyes of the Lord Jehovah `are' on the sinful kingdom, And I have destroyed it from off the face of the ground, Only, I destroy not utterly the house of Jacob, An affirmation of Jehovah. For lo, I am commanding, And I have shaken among all the nations the house of Israel, As `one' doth shake with a sieve, And there falleth not a grain `to' the earth.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Romans 11
Commentary on Romans 11 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 11
The apostle, having reconciled that great truth of the rejection of the Jews with the promise made unto the fathers, is, in this chapter, further labouring to mollify the harshness of it, and to reconcile it to the divine goodness in general. It might be said, "Hath God then cast away his people?' The apostles therefore sets himself, in this chapter, to make a reply to this objection, and that two ways:-
Rom 11:1-32
The apostle proposes here a plausible objection, which might be urged against the divine conduct in casting off the Jewish nation (v. 1): "Hath God cast away his people? Is the rejection total and final? Are they all abandoned to wrath and ruin, and that eternal? Is the extent of the sentence so large as to be without reserve, or the continuance of it so long as to be without repeal? Will he have no more a peculiar people to himself?' In opposition to this, he shows that there was a great deal of goodness and mercy expressed along with this seeming severity, particularly he insists upon three things:-
Rom 11:33-36
The apostle having insisted so largely, through the greatest part of this chapter, upon reconciling the rejection of the Jews with the divine goodness, he concludes here with the acknowledgment and admiration of the divine wisdom and sovereignty in all this. Here the apostle does with great affection and awe adore,