Romans 11:26

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(26) When this ingathering of the Gentiles is complete, then the turn of Israel will come round again, and the prophecies of their conversion will be fulfilled.

There shall come . . .—This prophecy is peculiarly appropriate, as it refers to the exiles who had apostatised in Babylon. Then, as now, a part of the nation had remained true, and those who had not would come back to their obedience.

Out of Sion.—There is a curious variation here from the original, which is rather, to Sion. The LXX. has “for Sion”—i.e., in the cause of Sion. The Apostle appears to be quoting from memory, and is influenced by a reminiscence of other passages. Zion is the centre and capital of the theocracy, but the Messiah must first take up His abode there before He can issue from it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:22-32 Of all judgments, spiritual judgments are the sorest; of these the apostle is here speaking. The restoration of the Jews is, in the course of things, far less improbable than the call of the Gentiles to be the children of Abraham; and though others now possess these privileges, it will not hinder their being admitted again. By rejecting the gospel, and by their indignation at its being preached to the Gentiles, the Jews were become enemies to God; yet they are still to be favoured for the sake of their pious fathers. Though at present they are enemies to the gospel, for their hatred to the Gentiles; yet, when God's time is come, that will no longer exist, and God's love to their fathers will be remembered. True grace seeks not to confine God's favour. Those who find mercy themselves, should endeavour that through their mercy others also may obtain mercy. Not that the Jews will be restored to have their priesthood, and temple, and ceremonies again; an end is put to all these; but they are to be brought to believe in Christ, the true become one sheep-fold with the Gentiles, under Christ the Great Shepherd. The captivities of Israel, their dispersion, and their being shut out from the church, are emblems of the believer's corrections for doing wrong; and the continued care of the Lord towards that people, and the final mercy and blessed restoration intended for them, show the patience and love of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And so - That is, in this manner; or when the great abundance of the Gentiles shall be converted, then all Israel shall be saved.

All Israel - All the Jews. It was a maxim among the Jews that "every Israelite should have part in the future age." (Grotius.) The apostle applies that maxim to his own purpose; and declares the sense in which it would be true. He does not mean to say that every Jew of every age would be saved; for he had proved that a large portion of them would be, in his time, rejected and lost. But the time would come when, as a people, they would be recovered; when the nation would turn to God; and when it could be said of them that, as a nation, they were restored to the divine favor. It is not clear that he means that even then every individual of them would be saved, but the body of them; the great mass of the nation would be. Nor is it said when this would be. This is one of the things which "the Father hath put in his own power;" Acts 1:7. He has given us the assurance that it shall be done to encourage us in our efforts to save them; and he has concealed the time when it shall be, lest we should relax our efforts, or feel that no exertions were needed to accomplish what must take place at a fixed time.

Shall be saved - Shall be recovered from their rejection; be restored to the divine favor; become followers of the Messiah, and thus be saved as all other Christians are.

As it is written - Isaiah 59:20. The quotation is not literally made, but the sense of the passage is preserved. The Hebrew is, "There shall come to Zion a Redeemer, and for those who turn from ungodliness in Jacob." There can be no doubt that Isaiah refers here to the times of the gospel.

Out of Zion - Zion was one of the bills of Jerusalem. On this was built the city of David. It came thus to denote, in general, the church, or people of God. And when it is said that the Redeemer should come out of Zion, it means that he should arise among that people, be descended from themselves, or should not be a foreigner. The Septuagint, however render it, "the Redeemer shall come on account of Zion." So the Chaldee paraphrase, and the Latin Vulgate.

And shall turn away ... - The Hebrew is, "to those forsaking un godliness in Jacob." The Septuagint has rendered it in the same manner as the apostle.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

26, 27. And so all Israel shall be saved—To understand this great statement, as some still do, merely of such a gradual inbringing of individual Jews, that there shall at length remain none in unbelief, is to do manifest violence both to it and to the whole context. It can only mean the ultimate ingathering of Israel as a nation, in contrast with the present "remnant." (So Tholuck, Meyer, De Wette, Philippi, Alford, Hodge). Three confirmations of this now follow: two from the prophets, and a third from the Abrahamic covenant itself. First, as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and

shall—or, according to what seems the true reading, without the "and"—"He shall"

turn away ungodliness from Jacob—The apostle, having drawn his illustrations of man's sinfulness chiefly from Ps 14:1-7 and Isa 59:1-21, now seems to combine the language of the same two places regarding Israel's salvation from it [Bengel]. In the one place the Psalmist longs to see the "salvation of Israel coming out of Zion" (Ps 14:7); in the other, the prophet announces that "the Redeemer (or, 'Deliverer') shall come to (or 'for') Zion" (Isa 59:20). But as all the glorious manifestations of Israel's God were regarded as issuing out of Zion, as the seat of His manifested glory (Ps 20:2; 110:2; Isa 31:9), the turn which the apostle gives to the words merely adds to them that familiar idea. And whereas the prophet announces that He "shall come to (or, 'for') them that turn from transgression in Jacob," while the apostle makes Him say that He shall come "to turn away ungodliness from Jacob," this is taken from the Septuagint version, and seems to indicate a different reading of the original text. The sense, however, is substantially the same in both. Second,

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Here is a third and chief part of the aforementioned mystery, that in the end,

all Israel shall be saved. By Israel is not meant the whole church of God, consisting of Jews and Gentiles; so that word is used, Galatians 6:16, and elsewhere; for then, what he spake would have been no mystery at all: but by Israel here (as in the precedent verse) you must understand, the nation and people of the Jews. And by

all Israel is not meant every individual Israelite, but many, or (it may be) the greatest part of them. So all is to be taken in Scripture: see John 6:45 1 Timothy 2:6, and elsewhere. Look, as when he speaks of the conversion of the Gentiles, and the coming in of their fulness, there are many (too many of them) still unconverted; so, notwithstanding the general calling of the Jews, a great many of them may remain uncalled.

As it is written; the apostle had this by revelation, but he proves it also by Scripture. All are not agreed from whence these testimonies are taken; the former is found (with some little variation) in Isaiah 59:20: as for the latter, some think it is taken from Jeremiah 31:33. Others think, that he joineth two places in Isaiah together, (as he did before, Romans 11:8), and the last words are taken out of Isaiah 27:9. The Seventy have the very words used by the apostle. These prophecies and promises, though they were in part fulfilled when Christ came in the flesh, {see Acts 3:26} yet there will be a more full and complete accomplishment thereof upon the Jewish nation and people towards the end of the world.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And so all Israel shall be saved,.... Meaning not the mystical spiritual Israel of God, consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, who shall appear to be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, when all God's elect among the latter are gathered in, which is the sense many give into; but the people of the Jews, the generality of them, the body of that nation, called "the fulness" of them, Romans 11:12, and relates to the latter day, when a nation of them shall be born again at once; when, their number being as the sand of the sea, they shall come up out of the lands where they are dispersed, and appoint them one head, Christ, and great shall be the day of Jezreel; when they as a body, even the far greater part of them that shall be in being, shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their King; shall acknowledge Jesus to be the true Messiah, and shall look to him, believe on him, and be saved by him from wrath to come. There is a common saying among them (c), , "all Israel shall have a part", or "portion in the world to come"; and in support of this they usually produce the passage in Isaiah 60:21, "thy people also shall be all righteous": yea, they even go so far as to say (d),

"that hell fire will have no power over the transgressors of Israel;''

fancying, that every individual person of their nation will be saved; though they sometimes except such who deny the resurrection of the dead, and that the law is from heaven, or is an epicure, and he that reads foreign books, or is an enchanter, or pronounces the ineffable name: but the apostle is not to be understood with such a latitude; he refers to the last times, and to a very general conversion of them to the Messiah:

as it is written, Isaiah 59:20,

there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer: the words of the prophet are, "and the Redeemer shall come to Zion": by the Redeemer, or Deliverer, words of the same signification, is meant the Messiah, as the Jews (e) themselves own, and apply this passage to him; who is the "Goel", or near kinsman of his people, to whom the right of their redemption belongs as man; and who as God was able to effect it, and, as God-man and Mediator, was every way qualified for it, and has obtained it for them: and whereas, in the prophet Isaiah, he is said to "come to", and by the apostle, "out of Zion", this may be reconciled by observing, that the servile letter sometimes signifies "from", as well as to, when it is put in the room of of which instances may be given, as Exodus 16:1 compared with 2 Chronicles 11:4. Besides, the Messiah was to come out of Zion, as well as to come to it, according to Psalm 14:7; so that the apostle fitly expresses the faith and expectation of the old Jewish church in this citation:

and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; in the prophet it is, "and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob", Isaiah 59:20. The apostle follows the translation of the Septuagint, and which is favoured by the Chaldee paraphrase, which runs thus; "the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and to turn the rebellious ones of the house of Jacob to the law"; so that the Jew (f) has no reason to charge the apostle with a perversion of the prophet's words, when they are cited so agreeably to their own Targumist: and the sense of them relates not to what Christ did on the cross, when the iniquities of his people were laid on him, and he bore them, and removed them all in one day from them; but to what he will do to the Jews in the latter day, in consequence thereof; he will convince them of their ungodliness, give them repentance for it and remission of it.

(c) Misn. Sanhedrin c. 11. sect. 1.((d) T. Bab. Erubin, fol. 19. 1. & Chagiga, fol. 27. 1.((e) Aben Ezra in loc. T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 1.((f) R. Isaac, Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 81.

Geneva Study Bible

And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Romans 11:26 f. Καὶ οὕτω] And so, namely, after the πλήρωμα τῶν ἐθνῶν shall have come in. The modal character of the οὕτω therefore lies in the succession of time conditioning the emergence of the fact (comp. 1 Corinthians 11:28), as it also in the classics, in the sense of so then, embraces what has been previously said. See Schweighäuser, Lex. Herod. II. p. 167; Thucyd. iii. 96. 2; Xen. Anab. iii. 5. 6; Dem. 644. 18, 802. 20. Theodoret rightly says: τῶν γὰρ ἐθνῶν δεξαμένων τὸ κήρυγμα πιστεύσουσι κἀκεῖνοι, and that, according to Romans 11:11, under the impulse of powerful emulation. We may add that this great final result is brought into more important prominence, if we take ΚΑῚ ΟὝΤΩ Κ.Τ.Λ. independently, than if we make it form part of the statement dependent on ὍΤΙ (Lachmann, Tischendorf, Fritzsche, Ewald, Hofmann, and others).

Πᾶς ἸΣΡΑΉΛ] This notion, so definitely expressed, of the totality of the people is in no way to be limited; the whole of those are intended, who, at the time that the fulness of the Gentiles shall have come in, will compose Israel. All Israelites who up to that time shall be still unconverted, will then be converted to salvation, so that at that term entire Israel will obtain the saving deliverance; but comp., as to the quite unlimited expression, the remark on Romans 11:25. Limitations from other interests than that of exegesis have been suggested: such as that the spiritual Israel, Galatians 6:6, is meant (Augustine, Theodoret, Luther, Calvin, Grotius, and others, including Krummacher); or only the select portion of the Jews (Calovius, Bengel, and several others, including Olshausen: “all those members of the Israelitish people who from the beginning belonged to the true λεῖμμα”); or that πᾶς is to be taken comparatively only of the greater number, of the bulk (Oecumenius, Wetstein, Rückert, Fritzsche, Tholuck). To this comes in substance also Hofmann’s explanation: “that the people, as a people, will be converted;” but πᾶς Ἰσραήλ is, in fact, not “Israel as a whole,” but rather the entire Israel, as is also meant in 2 Chronicles 12:1 and in all O. T. passages, in contrast to ἀπὸ μέρους, Romans 11:25. Comp. πᾶς οἶκος Ἰσρ., Acts 2:36, πᾶς ὁ λαὸς Ἰσρ., and the like. This also against Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 404.

σωθήσεται] will be saved, unto Messianic salvation, by their conversion to Christ.

καθὼς γέγρ.] For πᾶς Ἰσρ. σωθής. Paul finds a Scripture warrant, not merely a substratum for his own ideas (Tholuck), in Isaiah 59:20-21 (not quite closely after the LXX., and, from ὅταν onwards, with a bringing in of Isaiah 27:9; see Surenhus. καταλλ. p. 503 f.); to the prophetic sense of this passage the future salvation of all Israel corresponds as result.

ἐκ Σιών] for from God will the deliverer come; the theocratic central-point and dwelling-place of the divine kingdom is the holy mount of Zion. Comp. Psalm 14:7; Psalm 53:6, et al. See also Romans 9:33. The LXX. have, following the original, ἕνεκεν Σιών (לְצִיּוֹן, i.e. for Zion). Our ἘΚ ΣΙΏΝ is a variation of memory, occasioned by the reminiscence of other passages (comp. Psalm 14:7; Psalm 53:6; Psalm 110:2); for ἕνεκεν Σ. would have been quite as suitable to the apostle’s purpose (in opposition to Reiche, Fritzsche, van Hengel); hence to discover intentional reasons for this deviation (Philippi: in order to bring into stronger relief the claim of the people as contrasted with the Gentiles) is groundless. Nor was this deviation more convenient (Hofmann) for the apostle, namely, in order to designate Christ’s place of manifestation; but it involuntarily on his part found its way into the citation freely handled.

ὁ ῥυόμενος] i.e. not God (Grotius, van Hengel), who first emerges in Romans 11:27, but the Messiah. In the Heb. we find גּוֹאֵל, a deliverer, without the article, by which, however, no other is intended. The future coming of the deliverer which is here predicted is, in the sense of the fulfilment of this prophecy, necessarily that whereby the Πᾶς ἸΣΡΑῊΛ ΣΩΘΉΣΕΤΑΙ will be effected; consequently not the Parousia, because the conversion of all Israel must be antecedent to this, but rather that specially efficacious self-revelation of Christ in the preaching of His gospel (comp. Ephesians 2:17), to be expected by the future, whereby He will bring about that final sacred-historical epoch of the people, the conversion of its totality. Erroneously, however, Augustine, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Beda have supposed it predicted that Elijah or Enoch would appear before the end of the world as converter of the Jews.

ἈΠΟΣΤΡ. ἈΣΕΒ. ἈΠῸ ἸΑΚ.] He will turn away, i.e. (comp. Bar 3:7; 1Ma 4:58) remove, do away with impieties from Jacob. By this, in the sense of the apostle, is meant the atoning, reconciling work of the Messiah (comp. John 1:29 : αἴρων τ. ἁμαρτ.), which He will accomplish in Israel by its conversion. Hence there follows, as the correlative to this in Romans 11:27, the forgiveness of sins on the part of God, procured through Him, and that as the actually saving essence of the covenant, which the people possesses from God. Compare the original text, which, however, instead of Κ. ἈΠΟΣΤΡ. ἈΣΕΒ. ἈΠῸ ἸΑΚΏΒ has וּלְשָׁבֵי פֶשַׁע בְּיַעֲקֹב, and for those turning from apostasy in Jacob. Paul, however, because following generally in this quotation the LXX., retains also its deviation from the original text, but not as if this could have been more welcome to him for his object, for in that respect he might have just as well made use of the words of the original.

αὕτη] points to the following (comp. 1 John 5:2), so that the sense of Romans 11:27 is: “And when I shall have forgiven their sins, this, this remission of sins conferred by me, will be my covenant to them, i.e. they will therein have from me the execution of my covenant.” Both in the original and in the LXX. ΑὝΤΗ points to the following, in which the words of the covenant (ΤῸ ΠΝΕῦΜΑ ΤῸ ἘΜῸΝ … Οὐ ΜῊ ἘΚΛΊΠῌ ἘΚ ΤΟῦ ΣΤΌΜ. Κ.Τ.Λ.) are adduced; but instead of them, Paul, for the object which he has in view, puts ὍΤΑΝ ἈΦΈΛΩΜΑΙ Κ.Τ.Λ. from Isaiah 27:9, where likewise a preceding demonstrative (ΤΟῦΤΌ ἘΣΤΙΝ Ἡ ΕὐΛΟΓΊΑ ΑὐΤΟῦ) points forward to ὍΤΑΝ. Hence we may not, with others (including Köllner and Hofmann), refer ΑὝΤΗ to the preceding, in which case ἀποστρ. ἀσεβείας ἀπὸ Ἰακ. is supposed to point to the moral conversion, and ἈΦΕΛ. Τ. ἉΜΑΡΤ. ΑὐΤ. to the forgiveness, on the ground of which that conversion takes place (see Hofmann). According to this view, the essence of the covenant would lie in sanctification, not in reconciliation, which would be conceived rather as antecedent to the covenant,—a view which runs counter to the N. T. doctrine (Matthew 26:26; Hebrews 9:15 ff; Hebrews 10:29; Hebrews 12:24; Hebrews 13:20).

Ἡ ΠΑΡʼ ἘΜΟῦ ΔΙΑΘΉΚΗ] The covenant which proceeded from me, which was made on my part. See Bernhardy, p. 255 f.; Fritzsche, ad Marc. p. 182 f.; van Hengel, in loc.

REMARK.

The conversion of entire Israel promised by Paul as a μυστήριον revealed to him, has not yet taken place; for the opinion, that the promise had been fulfilled already in the apostolic age through the conversion of a great part of the people (comp. Euseb. H. E. iii. 35; Judaizantes in Jerome; Grotius, Limborch, Wetstein), is set aside, notwithstanding Acts 21:20, by the literal meaning of πᾶς Ἰσραήλ and of πλήρωμα τῶν ἐθνῶν. The fulfilment is to be regarded as still future, as the last step in the universal extension of Christianity upon earth. In respect of time no more special definition can be given, than that the conversion of the totality of the Gentiles must precede it; whence only this is certain, that it is still a time very distant. Paul has certainly viewed the matter as near, seeing that he conceived the Parousia itself to be near (not merely, perhaps, its possible, but its actual emergence—in opposition to Philippi),—a conception which was shared by him with the whole apostolical church, although it remained without the verification of the event, as this was conceived of. But the promise of the conversion of the people of Israel is not on that account itself to be regarded as one, the fulfilment of which is no longer to be hoped for,—as though, with the non-verified conception of the time of the event, the event itself should fall to the ground (Ammon, Reiche, Köllner, Fritzsche); for it is the fact in itself, and not the epoch of it, which is disclosed by the apostle as part of the μυστήριον which was revealed to him; and therefore this disclosure rested on the ἀποκάλυψις received, not on individual opinion and expectation. The duration of time until the Parousia was not subject-matter of revelation, Acts 1:7, and the conception of it belongs, therefore, not to that in the apostolic teaching which has the guarantee of divine certainty, but to the domain of subjective hope and expectation, which associated themselves with what was revealed,—a distinction which even Philippi does not reject. The latter, however, endeavours to remove from the category of error the apostolic expectation of the nearness of the Parousia, because it was not cherished with that divine certainty; but cannot thereby prevent it, where it is presupposed so definitely, as e.g. Romans 13:11, or is expressed so unconditionally, as e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, from being characterized by an unprejudiced mind as a human error, which did not, however, exclude occasionally other moods, as in 2 Corinthians 5:8, Php 1:23. Of such human mistakes and vacillations, which lie outside the range of revealed truth, that truth is independent (against Hoelemann, neue Bibelstud. p. 232 ff., and others).

We may further notice that our passage directly controverts the Ebionitish view, now renewed in various quarters (Chr. A. Crusius, Delitzsch, Baumgarten, Ebrard, Auberlen, and others; expositors of the Apocalypse), of an actual restoration of Israel to the theocratic kingdom in Canaan, as to be expected on the ground of prophetic predictions (Hosea 2:2; Hosea 2:16 ff., Hosea 3:4-5; Isaiah 11:11; Isaiah 24:16, chap. 60;

Expositor's Greek Testament

Romans 11:26. καὶ οὕτως = and thus; not merely temporal, but = under the influence of the jealousy so excited—under the impression produced on the Jews by the sight of the Gentiles in their fulness peopling the kingdom—all Israel shall be saved. This is an independent sentence. For πᾶς Ἰσραὴλ see 1 Kings 12:1, 2 Chronicles 12:1. It means Israel as a whole. Paul is thinking of the historical people, as the contrast with Gentiles shows, but he is not thinking of them one by one. Israel a Christian nation, Israel as a nation a part of the Messianic kingdom, is the content of his thought. To make πᾶς Ἰσραὴλ refer to a “spiritual” Israel, or to the elect, is to miss the mark: it foretells a “conversion of the Jews so universal that the separation into an ‘elect remnant’ and ‘the rest who were hardened’ shall disappear” (Gifford). καθὼς γέγραπται Isaiah 59:20 f., but the last words ὅταν ἀφέλωμαι κ.τ.λ. from Isaiah 27:9. The prophet says ἕνεκεν Σίων Paul’s ἐκ Σιὼν is probably a lapse of memory, due to the impression of passages like Ps. 14:7, 53:7, Isaiah 2:3, though Philippi thinks it intentional—the object being to emphasise the title of the Jews, as against the Gentiles, to a share in the kingdom. It is then as if he said: Salvation is of the Jews, and surely therefore for them. It is impossible to say that ἥξει refers to the first or to the second advent: the distinction is not present to Paul’s mind as he writes; all he is concerned with is the fact that in prophetic scripture language is used which implies that Israel as a people is to inherit the Messianic salvation. ὁ ῥυόμενος, Hebrew גֹּאֵל is the Messiah. ἀποστρέψει ἀσεβείας. Cf. Bar 3:7, 1Ma 4:58.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

26. And so all Israel shall be saved] Several interpretations of these words are in themselves legitimate. They may refer (A) to the natural Israel, the Jews; or (B) to the “Israel of God,” the true Church of Christ. Again, if the reference (A) is adopted, the prophecy may mean (a) that then all the elect of Israel shall at length be gathered in—the long process shall at length be complete; or (b) that every individual of the then generation of Jews shall be brought to Messiah’s grace; or (c) that “all” bears a less exact reference here, as so often in Scripture, and means “in general;”—“Israel in general, the Jews of that day as a great aggregate, on a scale unknown before, shall be saved.”

Of these various possibilities we prefer on the whole (A. c,) as the most in accord with the context, and with the analogy of Scripture. The explanation (B) is in itself entirely true: the final glory and triumph of the Gospel will surely be, not specially the salvation of the Jews, but that of the Universal Church—the immortal Bride of the King Eternal. And it is extremely important to remember the full recognition in Scripture of all its true members as the “seed of Abraham” (Galatians 3:29). But this is not the truth exactly in point here, where St Paul is dealing with the special prospect of a time when “blindness in part” will no longer characterize Jews as Jews. And the “Israel” of Romans 11:25 is probably the Israel of Romans 11:26, as no distinction is suggested in the interval.—Again, the reference marked (A. a), though perfectly true in itself, is less likely here because in Romans 11:15; Romans 11:25, we have had already a prediction of a restoration of Jews, en masse, to grace; whereas the process of gathering in the elect of all ages is continuous, and thus, on the whole, gradual.—Again, the reference marked (A. b), though the Divine Plan may, of course, intend no less, is far from analogous to the main teaching of Scripture as to the developements (even the largest) of grace in this world.—On the whole, then, we adopt the interpretation which explains the sentence as predicting the conversion of some generation or generations of Jews, a conversion so real and so vastly extensive that unbelief shall be the small exception at the most, and that Jews as such shall everywhere be recognized as true Christians, lights in the world, and salt on the earth.

There shall come out of Sion, &c.] In the following quotation St Paul more or less combines, as often, (see e.g. Romans 3:10-18,) several O. T. prophecies; with this for the main purport, that one ultimate result of the coming of Messiah should be the gift of grace to the Jews. In Isaiah 59:20-21, we have in the Heb., “And there shall come a Redeemer for Zion, and for them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord: As for me, this is my covenant with them.” In Isaiah 27:9; “This is all the fruit [of God’s dealings, namely] to take away his [Jacob’s] sin.” In Psalm 14:7 (LXX. Romans 13:7); “Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion!” In Isaiah 59:20 the LXX. has, “There shall come for Sion’s sake the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” In Isaiah 27:9 it has, “This is his blessing, when I shall take away his sin.”

St Paul seems to have woven into one Isaiah 59:20 and Psalm 14:7, and to have completed the sentence from Isaiah 27:9. In the last clause of Romans 11:26 here he adopts the LXX., because, though it represents the Heb. inexactly, the substantial meaning is untouched:—the Redeemer’s coming shall be “for,” “for the benefit of,” those who turn from sin, by being the cause of their so doing; He shall thus turn sin from them, in the sense of removing its guilt and breaking its power.

shall come out of Sion] Here probably the reference is to the First Advent. Q. d., “It stands foretold that the Appearance of Messiah, of the seed of David, shall result in the subdual of the unbelief and rebellion of Jacob, and the bringing in of a covenant for him of final pardon and peace. Now Messiah has appeared; therefore, how slow soever the fulfilment be as yet, the remainder of this great promise must be drawing on: Israel shall yet be saved.” The words have been often explained to foretel a future Coming of the Redeemer, whether literal or figurative, to work the conversion of Israel on a great scale. But the explanation above is fully sufficient for the argument, and (to say the least) more in accord with St Paul’s general teaching as to the future Coming of the Lord.

the Deliverer] the Rescuer; same word as 1 Thessalonians 1:10, “who rescueth us from the wrath to come.” Heb. “Goel;” the Avenger of a Kinsman; hence generally the strong friend who rescues the weak.

ungodliness] Lit. impieties.—Perhaps omit the “and” before “shall turn away.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Romans 11:26. καὶ οὓτω, and so) he does not say and then, but with greater force, and so, in which very expression the then is included; to wit, the blindness of Israel will be terminated by the very coming in of the Gentiles.—πᾶς Ἰσραὴλ, all Israel) Israel contradistinguished from the Gentiles, of which Romans 11:25 treats. The words, שארית, a remnant, and פליטה, deliverance, are used in respect of those that perished; but the Remnant itself, numerous in itself, will be wholly converted, Micah 2:12.—σωθήσεται) shall be saved: The Latin Vulgate has expressed this by, salvus fieret; and not inappropriately.[124] It contains this sentiment, the fulness of the Gentiles shall be brought in and so all Israel shall be made safe; but ἄχρις οὗ, until, has changed the former verb εἰσελεύσεται [Indic.] into ΕἸΣΈΛΘῌ [Subj.], the second verb, ΣΩΘΉΣΕΤΑΙ, remaining [Indicative].—See similar instances noticed at Mark 3:27. The Latin Vulg. has expressed the meaning.—ἭΞΕΙ ἘΚ ΣΙῺΝ—ΔΙΑΘΉΚΗ, ὋΤΑΝ ἈΦΈΛΩΜΑΙ ΤᾺς ἉΜΑΡΤΊΑς ΑὐΤῶς) shall come out of Zion—the covenant, when I shall take away their sins. Isaiah 59:20-21, LXX., καὶ ἥξει ἓνεκα Σιὼν—ΔΙΑΘΉΚΗ, ΕἾΠΕ ΚΎΡΙΟς, Κ.Τ.Λ., and shall come for the sake of Zion—the covenant, saith the Lord, etc. Isaiah 27:9, LXX., καὶ τοῦτο ἐστιν ἡ εὐλογία αὐτοῦ, ὍΤΑΝ ἈΦΈΛΩΜΑΙ ΤῊΝ ἈΜΑΡΤΊΑΝ ΑὐΤΟῦ, Κ.Τ.Λ., and this is His blessing, when I shall take away his sin. Heb. גואל לציון, and there shall come to Zion (and for its benefit) the Redeemer, and to those turning from transgression in Jacob. Paul, ch. 3, in describing sin had quoted Psalms 14, and chiefly ch. 59 of Isaiah: now in describing salvation, he joins together the same texts. He says, ἐκ Σιὼν, out of Sion, as the LXX., Psalm 14:7. The Deliverer or Redeemer comes (ἘΚ) out of Sion and (ל, ἛΝΕΚΑ) for good to Sion. His coming has been already accomplished, and the fruit will arrive at perfection at the proper time. Sion is a whole, in a good sense, Jacob here is a whole, in a less favourable sense; those returning are a part.

[124] Thus the Vulg. makes σωθήσεται depend on ἂχρις οὖ, donec, “until the fulness of the Gentiles shall come in, and until all Israel shall thus be saved.”—ED.

Romans 11:26

Vincent's Word Studies

The deliverer (ὁ ῥυόμενος)

The Hebrew is goel redeemer, avenger. The nearest relative of a murdered person, on whom devolved the duty of avenger, was called goel haddam avenger of blood. So the goel was the nearest kinsman of a childless widow, and was required to marry her (Deuteronomy 25:5-10). It is the word used by Job in the celebrated passage Job 19:25. See, also, Ruth 3:12, Ruth 3:13; Ruth 4:1-10.