The passage
      v1. In the previous passage Paul explained that the majority of his fellow Jews had clearly heard the gospel, but had chosen not to respond in faith, and are therefore without excuse. He now rejects the possible conclusion that God has completely cast off his people. "By no means" (God forbid!). Paul himself, the apostle to the Gentiles, is a Jew, one of many who have come to believe in Jesus.
      v2-4. Paul now emphatically states that God "has not cast off his people". Abraham, and those of his descendents with a faith like his, are objects of God's special favour ("whom he foreknew"), and this situation has never changed. Alluding to 1Kings 19:10-18 Paul reminds his readers that at the height of Israel's apostasy during the reign of king Ahab when the prophet Elijah thought he was the last true Israelite, even then there was a faithful remnant, God's 7,000 (7 displaying completeness and therefore probably a symbolic number).
      v5-6. As it was in Elijah's day, so it is in Paul's day. There exists a faithful remnant whose standing before God does not depend on their own meritorious works, but on the sovereign grace of God; it depends on God's mercy freely appropriated through faith. Grace and meritorious works are mutually exclusive. A person's right-standing before God depends on God's mercy, it depends on his promised forgiveness to those who ask, and certainly does not depend on a person's obedience to Biblical law.
      v7. Israel waited eagerly for the coming of God's kingdom, but when it came in Christ, many did not gain it because they sought the prize in their own right (their linage in Abraham, obedience to the law....). Only some of Israel, a "remnant", remained as God's "elect" people, the true descendents of Abraham, the children of faith. The bulk of Israel heard, but did not believe and so did not call out to the Lord. As a consequence, they were "hardened", their minds was dulled to the message of salvation. When a person rejects a clear word from the Lord they are left with little more than riddles.
      v8. Paul alludes to the divine hardening, Deut.29:4, Isa.6:9-10, 29:10. Spiritual insensibility is the inevitable consequence for those who resist God's kind mercy.
      v9-10. Psalm 69:22-23 illustrates this divine hardening. The imagery was originally used to describe a curse upon the enemies of Israel. Now, sadly, Israel faces this very curse. Yet, the hardening is not "forever", rather it is continual, relentless, but always with the hope that the people will repent, cf. 11:11-12.

God never rejects us
      A young person recently told me of an experience he had when he was in his teens. He attended a Friday night youth club at his local church. He didn't come from a church-going family, and he was quite open about the reasons for going to the youth club. His friends went there and it was a top spot to meet girls. One evening the minister came to a club night. He lined everyone up and asked each person individually, "do you go to church?" When he had finished, he had two lines, one for attenders and one for the rest. Then came the crunch. The minister told everyone present that there were two groups present at the club that night. There are those going to heaven and those who aren't. Those not going to church were not going to heaven.
      This incident left a mark on this young man and I must say, as he told the story, it left a mark on me. I found it difficult not to cry, but then real men don't cry! Anyway, after his youth-club outing he went home and told his parents what happened and from then on he wasn't allowed to go back to the youth club, not that he really wanted to. As he related the story to me you could feel the anger, the hurt, the offence..... He had carried the hurt with him all those years, the hurt of rejection, even the sense that he was rejected by God.
      Our Lord will stand off from us in our rebellion, his words will dry up before us, but he doesn't reject us on mass. There will always be those who look past the riddles of life. Thankfully our God is gracious and kind; he hears the cry of the lost and joyfully carries them to eternity.

v1
      oun "[I ask] then" - therefore. Although often expressing result/consequence, it may just express transition, or development, in an argument, and that is most likely what is intended here; "let me put a further question then", Cassirer.
      mh "-" - Used in a question expecting a negative answer.
      apwsato (apwqew) aor. "reject" - put away, drive away, cast off, repel, reject. Expressing a strong action of pushing away, so here of God pushing away his people; "disowned", Cassirer; "totally repudiated", Phillips; "cast off", Weymouth; "turned his back on", CEV; "fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them", Peterson; "abandoned", NJB.
      mh genoito "by no means" - may it not be so. Expressing a strong denial. "Certainly not", TEV.
      egw "I [am an Israelite myself]" - I [am an Israelite]. Emphatic. Is Paul saying that as a Jew he cannot countenance the idea that God would "reject" his people, or is he saying that since he is a Jewish believer it is not possible to argue that God has totally rejected his people (the NIV "myself" carries this sense)? "How could I agree with that, I who am an Israelite", Barclay.

v2
      ton laon "[his] people" - Meaning, "people of Israel", not individual people in Israel.
      proegnw (proginwskw) aor. "he foreknew" - he knew/chose beforehand. Usually understood as a dynamic knowing and therefore election (election of individuals is argued by some, Calvin, Hodge, .. but election of a corporate identity is more likely - "the people as a whole", Moo, so Cranfield, Morris, Murray, ....). Referring to God's election/choice of a people founded on Abraham and his faith-response to God. Those who take God at his word stand with Abraham under the covenant blessings of God and are rightly identified as God's elect people. This people may be made up of Abraham's descendents (and the stranger within the gates), but never included all of Abraham's descendents (Paul has already made this argument).
      h] "-" - or. Here expressing an alternative. If someone were to think that God has abandoned his elect people then they should consider the example of Elijah; "surely you know what the scriptures says in the place where it tells us of Elijah", Cassirer.
      kata + gen. "[he appealed to God] against [Israel]" - against. With the genitive, usually expressing opposition to. The prayer of Elijah "is not on behalf of Israel, but against Israel", Moo. "Against" is a little confusing since Elijah's prayer, 1Kin.19:10, is not actually asking that the Lord act against Israel, but is rather a lament over the state of Israel's faith. Elijah assumes that all Israel is faithless, for which assumption the Lord corrects him. "Elijah accused Israel before God", Pilcher, ....... v3 ........, v4 alla "but [what was God's answer to him?]"

v3
      Paul shortens the quotation somewhat.
      kateskayan (kataskaptw) aor. "torn down [your alters]" - they destroyed, dug down, ruined, burned down. Aorist expressing punctiliar / decisive action. "Razed to the ground", BAGD.

v4
      alla "and" - but. Here adversative. "But what says the divine oracular response", Pilcher.
      oJ crhmatismoV (oV) "God's answer" - divine reply, oracle. Hapax legomenon, once only use in the NT. "Authoritative divine answer", Moo.
      katelipon (kataleipw) aor. "I have reserved" - I have left behind. Here taking the sense "see to it that something is left over", BAGD. Moo notes that this as "one of the seminal remnant texts in the Old Testament."
      oiJtineV "who" - Not just "who", but "who were of such a character that", Morris.
      ouk ekamyan gonu "have not bowed the knee" - In the sense of not accepting the spiritual lordship of Baal. "I still have 7,000 who haven't quit, 7,000 who are loyal to the finish", Peterson.

v5
      ouJtwV oun "so too" - so then. Drawing an inference from the preceding verse (although it may refer to what follows). "Accordingly, therefore", BAGD; "in this manner, therefore", Jewett.
      kai "-" - and, also, but. "Also at the present time", Jewett.
      gegonen (ginomai) perf. "there is" - has come into being. The perfect tense usually expresses a present state resulting from a past action, probably the sense here, so Dunn, although an aoristic perfect is possible, as NIV, "is", Morris; "he has brought into existence a remnant", Moo; "there has come into being such a remnant", Barrett.
      leimma (a atoV) "a remnant" - a remnant. Hapax legomenon, cognate of kataleipw "left behind." The idea of a remnant of Israel was propagated by the prophets who spoke of part of Israel surviving the conquest and subsequent deportations of both Israel and Judah and reestablishing the kingdom in Jerusalem/Zion.
      kata + acc. "-" - according to. Here probably causal, "because of God's election of grace", Moo, although "chosen according to the principle of grace", Jewett, "in accordance with grace", Dunn, is possible.
      kata ekloghn caritoV "chosen by grace" - a selection of grace. This is a highly contentious phrase. Moo argues that the genitive "of grace" is descriptive, so "an election characterized by Grace" = "a gracious election." "Election" is again best understood in the terms of "the selection" ("God's free and unconditional choice", Dunn) of a corporate identity, rather than of individuals (Schreiner, Morris, etc.), and "grace" is best understood as God's "covenant mercy." So, Paul is referring to the establishment and maintenance of a divine line, as an act of God's sovereign will, based on covenant mercy (appropriated through faith) rather than works of the law.

v6
      ei + ind. "if" - First class condition where the condition is assumed to be true.
      "it is" - An ellipsis, the indicative of the verb "to be" must be assumed. What is the subject, the "it"? Possibly "membership in the people of God", Morris; certainly inclusion in the remnant.
      cariti (iV itoV) dat. "by grace" - The dative is instrumental, as NIV.
      "then" - Introducing the negated apodosis of the conditional clause.
      ouketi "(it is) no longer" - no more, no longer. A logical, rather than chronological connotation, "not", Jewett. Covenant inclusion was never by works so the sense is: given that inclusion in the remnant is by grace it cannot be argued that it is by works, or even more to the point, "if the remnant is chosen by grace, they are (obviously) not chosen on the basis of the merit of their own works", Pilcher.
      ex + gen. "by [works]" - Usually in the sense of "out of / from", but sometimes expressing the means as consisting a source, "by / on the ground of", Zerwick.
      ergwn (on) "works" - "Works of the law."
      epei "if it were" - since, because. "In that case", Zerwick; better, "for otherwise", Cranfield.
      hJ cariV "grace" - the grace. The presence of the article indicates that we are not dealing with an abstraction, ie., "God's graciousness", but a particular grace, namely, "God's covenant mercy."
      ouketi ginetai "[grace] would no longer be [grace]" - Works of the law and grace (obedience and faith) for right-standing before God / covenant compliance and thus remnant inclusion, are mutually exclusive; "ceases in its concrete manifestation to become", Meyer; "grace would not be grace at all", NJB.

v7
      ti oun "what then?" - Expressing "the result of what Paul has been saying", Morris.
      o} "what [Israel sought (so earnestly)]" - what [Israel is seeking]. What is the "what"? Morris, Moo, Mounce suggest "righteousness"; Dunn "the benefits of a sustained covenant relationship, including final vindication", which, of course, the Jews wrongly assumed rested on "the righteousness of the law."
      epizhtei (epizhtew) pres. "sought (so earnestly) for" - inquired after, sought after, wished for. The prefix intensifies, so a "striving after."
      ouk epetucen (epitugcanw) aor. "did not obtain" - was not successful. Taking the sense either "to light upon" or "to obtain", here probably the latter.
      de "but" - Adversative.
      hJ eklogh (h) "the elect" - Referring to the class of, rather than individuals.
      oiJ loipoi (oV) "the others" - the rest, remaining, others. Who? Possibly all those who are not of the elect, Jews and Gentiles, Morris, "the rest of men" or "the others of Israel", Dodd.
      epwrwqhsan (pwrow) aor. pas. "were hardened" - made stubborn, dim, hard. Often used by Paul to express "an inflexibility and insensibility to the gospel that hinders people from being saved", Schreiner. "They were hardened by God", Cranfield, taking the passive as a divine (theological) passive; or taking a more neutral view, they were hardened by God as a consequence of their own rebellion, cf., Morris. The latter view seems best. An undiscerning, obtuse, closed mind, of which this word refers, is often a divine punishment for a failure to respond to a clear word from the Lord. So, their minds were dulled because they continued to seek covenant standing by obedience to the law instead of submitting to the grace of God (God's covenant mercy), which is appropriated through faith. Of course, not everyone accepts the notion of "judicial hardening", Stott, of a "strengthening" of a predisposition, Nanos, but rather follow Calvin and argue for a hardening that produces unbelief.

v8
      The quotation is a combination of Deuteronomy 29:4 and Isaiah 29:10. Note how Jesus, in Matthew 13:10-17, uses the same language to justify the proclamation of the gospel in the form of kingdom parables (riddles) rather than a clear word from God. Israel, having rejected a straightforward declaration of the gospel ("the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God/heaven is at hand"), is left with an unclear word from God (a riddle). Yet, even in the riddle the remnant find truth: "blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear."
      autoiV "them" - to them. The position is emphatic; "them" = "Israel".
      pneuma (a atoV) "a spirit" - Not God's Spirit, but a person's psychological being, usually with reference to their sensitivity toward God, so "the spiritual self."
      katanuxewV (iV ewV) gen. "[spirit] of stupor" - [spirit] of insensitivity, dullness, stupor, torpor. The genitive is probably descriptive; "spiritual insensibility", Cranfield; "God gave them a spirit benumbed into insensibility", Barclay; or probably better, "numbed their senses", Knox.
      tou mh blepein "[eyes] so that they could not see" - to see. The negated articular infinitive, as with "to hear", usually forms either a purpose or result clause, "in order that / with the result that". Pilcher's translation, "eyes that did not see", epexegetic infinitive, is a possibility, cf., BDF. The LXX version of this quote uses simple infinitives and one wonders why Paul has made them articular. Moo thinks Paul is drawing out the modifying (epexegetic) function of the term, "God gave them such eyes that they do not see." None-the-less, purpose seems more likely expressing judicial blindness; "God gave them a spirit of stupor, so that eyes do not see and ears do not hear", Jewett.
      eJwV "to" - until [this very day]. Paul's version emphasizes the present, not "until this day", but "until this present day". For Paul, the words of the prophet apply today and they apply to the Israel of today.

v9
      In these next two verses Paul quotes Psalm 69:22-23. The psalmist calls for divine retribution upon his enemies, which sentiment Paul applies to his fellow Israelites.
      hJ trapeza "[their] table" - the table. In the original setting "cultic table" is obviously intended, referring to the idolatrous worship of Israel's pagan enemies. What has Paul in mind? Both Dunn and Jewett see a reference to the application of food laws by "the weak", ch.14, and the consequential breaking of table fellowship with their Gentile brothers. Yet, this seems unlikely. Cultic activities are surely in mind, here of Israel's devotion to the cultic law for covenant compliance, as against the exercise of faith, a faith like Abraham's. Such brings upon Israel a divine retribution that was properly intended for her enemies.
      eiV "-" - for. Used four times in this verse for dramatic effect. Here this preposition moves from a spacial sense toward purpose/result; "let their very food become to them a snare", Cassirer.
      pagida (iV idoV) "snare" - trap. Figuratively describing something that brings "danger and death, suddenly and unexpectedly", BAGD.
      qhran (a) "trap" - net. Paul takes some poetic licence with this addition to the LXX quote. Figuratively used of divine judgment.
      skandalon (on) "a stumbling block" - That which trips someone up. antapodoma (a) "a retribution" - repayment. Here a negative repayment = divine judgment.