Romans 9:29

Romans 9:29. And, as Isaiah hath said before, or, ‘beforehand.' The punctuation we adopt, involves this explanation of the passage: ‘And, even as Isaiah has predicted (so I repeat his words), Except' etc. Another view explains: ‘And (it is) as Isaiah has predicted.' The former is preferable, since Paul is thus preparing the way for his own prophetic utterances in chap. 11. ‘Before' can scarcely refer to the place of the passage in the Book of Isaiah, since this is a matter of no importance in this connection. The rendering ‘beforehand' indicates that this was said before the fulfilment.

Except the Lord of Sabaoth, etc. The Septuagint version of Isaiah 1:9 is cited word for word.

Seed. So the LXX. renders the Hebrew word, meaning ‘remnant,' which occurs in the original prophecy. This suggests an idea found in Isaiah 6:13 (comp. Ezra 9:2), that the remnant should be ‘a holy seed.' In fact the Jewish Christians, who escaped the judgment which fell on their nation at the destruction of Jerusalem, constituted such a seed for the Christian Church.

Became is to be substituted for ‘been.'

As regards the application made by Paul of this prophecy, it will seem all the more appropriate when the full scope of the original prediction is considered. ‘The prophet with a few ground-strokes gathers up the whole future of the people of Israel. He announces a period of judgment as an unavoidable passage way; then, again, a time of salvation. But the period of judgment comprehends in itself all the judgments then standing without as yet: every visitation, of which history from that time on knows aught, is a proof of this word of prophecy, a fulfilment of it….. Just so is the period of salvation conceived as the sum-total of all fulfilment in general, since the complete realization of all God's promises will bring what will still all the longing and the thirsting of the human heart from thenceforth and forever' (Dreschler). With this thought of the rejuvenation of Israel, through a remnant which is also a germ, the Apostle passes to the other side of the dark problem, namely, the unbelief of the Jews as the human cause of their rejection. This phase of the subject is introduced in Romans 9:30, with which, therefore, we begin another section.