As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’”

And again it says: “Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people.”

And again, “Praise the Lord all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him.”

“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

But about Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!”

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.

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?