Comp. Calvin Instit. B. iii. c. 20 and c. 24, sect. 17], is shown to be absurd. — dvreiOouvru, not believing ) with the i heart/ — dmXe- 701/ra, gainsaying ) with the ‘ mouth comp. ver. 8, etc.
1. aKuxfaro) hath He cast away entirely? So Gideon, ex-
postulating in faith, says vvv dcrw<raro ^dc, now He has forsaken us (cast us away , Judg. vi. 13). But ovx aKioGsrai K vpiog r'ov Xabv aurov , but the Lord will not cast away His people , Ps. xciv. (xciii.) 14. Has He cast them away, says Paul, so that they are no longer the people of God? In ch. x. after he so impressively exhibited the grace [which God exercised] towards the Gentiles, and the rebellion of the Jews, this objection might be made. He therefore answers, far be it from us to say, that God has re- jected His people, when the very appellation, His people contains a reason for denying it. The negative assertion, far be it , [God forbid], is made distinctly, (1.) concerning the present time of the offending people ; both that there are now some, [believers among them] ; comp. Acts xxi. 20, note ; and that in the suc- cessively increasing admission of Gentiles, there will be very many of Israel, who shall believe. These are called the remnant and the election ver. 5, 7. (2.) As to the future ; that the people
themselves, will at last be converted ver. 24, note. — syw, / ) Paul would rather draw a favourable conclusion from the individual [believing Israelites, as himself] to the genus, [the whole nation,] than one, on the unfavourable side, from the genus [the un- believing nation] to the species [the individual] ; — I, formerly a persecutor, deserved to be cast away. The genus is the whole Jewish people: the species is believers among the Jews (of whom Paul was one as an individual) or such of that people as should hereafter believe.
2. UposyvcS) foreknew , as a people peculiar to Himself, ver. 29. — h 'HX/a, in Elias ) in the history of Elias, who was in the greatest straits, and thought himself to be alone ; when Israel had become fewer than at any time before or since, [1 Kings xx. 15]. — svrvyvave/j Hesychius, evrvy^dvsi, ‘ffpoctpyirar, comp. Acts xxv. 24 ; 1 Macc. viii. 32.