Romans 9:27-29

“ But Isaiah crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant [only] shall be saved: for the Lord will make a short and summary reckoning on the earth:and, as Esaias foretold, Except the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we had become as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrha. ” Δέ, on the other hand (but). Paul's object is not merely to contrast Israel with the Gentiles, for in that case the words concerning Israel would begin the sentence. He wishes at the same time to show how the one prophet completes the other. His meaning is this: “To the saying of Hosea regarding the Gentiles there is added, to complete the revelation of God's plan, the following declaration of Isaiah concerning Israel.”

The expression κράζει, cries, indicates the threatening tone of the herald called to proclaim thus the judgment of the Sovereign. In this relation the preposition ὑπέρ, over, might well have its local sense: this threat henceforth hangs over the head of Israel.

The quotation is taken from Isaiah 10:22-23. The article τό, the, before the word remnant, characterizes this remnant as a thing known; and, indeed, one of the most frequent notions of the Book of Isaiah is that of the holy remnant, which survives all the chastisements of Israel, and which, coming forth purified from the crucible, becomes each time the germ of a better future. The T. R. reads κατάλειμμα, which is the term used by the LXX.; we ought probably to read with the Alexs. ὑπόλειμμα. The view of the apostle is not, as Hofmann and others think, that this remnant will certainly subsist; that is not the question. In the context, both of Isaiah and of the apostle, there is a contrast between the innumerable multitude which as it seemed ought to form Jehovah's people and which perishes, and the poor remnant which alone remains to enjoy the salvation.