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11I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. ²God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says of 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.” ⁴But what is the divine reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. ⁶But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. ⁷What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened, ⁸as it is written, “God gave them a sluggish spirit, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear, down to this very day.” ⁹And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution for them; ¹⁰let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs forever bent.”