Israel and the nations

²³ And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

²⁴ For if you were cut from a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into one that is cultivated, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!

He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud, and that they all passed through the sea.

Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for the Israelites is for their salvation.

And you are sons of the prophets and of the covenant God made with your fathers when He said to Abraham, ‘Through your offspring all the families of the earth will be blessed.’

²² Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the LORD says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,

²³ and I told you to let My son go so that he may worship Me. But since you have refused to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son!’”

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

⁴ And I heard the number of those who were sealed, 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel:

⁵ From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000,