---
title: "Romans 11 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/romans/11/
description: "God hath not cast off all Israel. The Gentiles must not be proud but stand in… Romans 11 in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Romans 11

Romans 11 is chapter 11 of 16 in the Letter to the Romans. Here are all 36 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

> God hath not cast off all Israel. The Gentiles must not be proud but stand in faith and fear.
>
> — Bp. Richard Challoner, chapter summary

## Romans 11 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. Therefore, I say: Has God driven away his people? Let it not be so! For I, too, am an Israelite of the offspring of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.
2. God has not driven away his people, whom he foreknew. And do you not know what Scripture says in Elijah, how he calls upon God against Israel?
3. “Lord, they have slain your Prophets. They have overturned your altars. And I alone remain, and they are seeking my life.”
4. But what is the Divine response to him? “I have retained for myself seven thousand men, who have not bent their knees before Baal.”
5. Therefore, in the same way, again in this time, there is a remnant that has been saved in accord with the choice of grace.
6. And if it is by grace, then it is not now by works; otherwise grace is no longer free.
7. What is next? What Israel was seeking, he has not obtained. But the elect have obtained it. And truly, these others have been blinded,
8. just as it was written: “God has given them a spirit of reluctance: eyes that do not perceive, and ears that do not hear, even until this very day.”
9. And David says: “Let their table become like a snare, and a deception, and a scandal, and a retribution for them.
10. Let their eyes be obscured, so that they may not see, and so that they may bow down their backs always.”
11. Therefore, I say: Have they stumbled in such a way that they should fall? Let it not be so! Instead, by their offense, salvation is with the Gentiles, so that they may be a rival to them.
12. Now if their offense is the riches of the world, and if their diminution is the riches of the Gentiles, how much more is their fullness?
13. For I say to you Gentiles: Certainly, as long as I am an Apostle to the Gentiles, I will honor my ministry,
14. in such a way that I might provoke to rivalry those who are my own flesh, and so that I may save some of them.
15. For if their loss is for the reconciliation of the world, what could their return be for, except life out of death?
16. For if the first-fruit has been sanctified, so also has the whole. And if the root is holy, so also are the branches.
17. And if some of the branches are broken, and if you, being a wild olive branch, are grafted on to them, and you become a partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive tree,
18. do not glorify yourself above the branches. For though you glory, you do not support the root, but the root supports you.
19. Therefore, you would say: The branches were broken off, so that I might be grafted on.
20. Well enough. They were broken off because of unbelief. But you stand on faith. So do not choose to savor what is exalted, but instead be afraid.
21. For if God has not spared the natural branches, perhaps also he might not spare you.
22. So then, notice the goodness and the severity of God. Certainly, toward those who have fallen, there is severity; but toward you, there is the goodness of God, if you remain in goodness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.
23. Moreover, if they do not remain in unbelief, they will be grafted on. For God is able to graft them on again.
24. So if you have been cut off from the wild olive tree, which is natural to you, and, contrary to nature, you are grafted on to the good olive tree, how much more shall those who are the natural branches be grafted on to their own olive tree?
25. For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of this mystery (lest you seem wise only to yourselves) that a certain blindness has occurred in Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has arrived.
26. And in this way, all of Israel may be saved, just as it was written: “From Zion shall arrive he who delivers, and he shall turn impiety away from Jacob.
27. And this will be my covenant for them, when I will take away their sins.”
28. Certainly, according to the Gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But according to the election, they are most beloved for the sake of the fathers.
29. For the gifts and the call of God are without regret.
30. And just as you also, in times past, did not believe in God, but now you have obtained mercy because of their unbelief,
31. so also have these now not believed, for your mercy, so that they might obtain mercy also.
32. For God has enclosed everyone in unbelief, so that he may have mercy on everyone.
33. Oh, the depths of the richness of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable are his ways!
34. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?
35. Or who first gave to him, so that repayment would be owed?
36. For from him, and through him, and in him are all things. To him is glory, for all eternity. Amen.

## Romans 11 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Dico ergo: Numquid Deus repulit populum suum? Absit. Nam et ego Israëlita sum ex semine Abraham, de tribu Benjamin:
2. non repulit Deus plebem suam, quam præscivit. An nescitis in Elia quid dicit Scriptura? quemadmodum interpellat Deum adversum Israël:
3. Domine, prophetas tuos occiderunt, altaria tua suffoderunt: et ego relictus sum solus, et quærunt animam meam.
4. Sed quid dicit illi divinum responsum? Reliqui mihi septem millia virorum, qui non curvaverunt genua ante Baal.
5. Sic ergo et in hoc tempore reliquiæ secundum electionem gratiæ salvæ factæ sunt.
6. Si autem gratia, jam non ex operibus: alioquin gratia jam non est gratia.
7. Quid ergo? Quod quærebat Israël, hoc non est consecutus: electio autem consecuta est: ceteri vero excæcati sunt:
8. sicut scriptum est: Dedit illis Deus spiritum compunctionis: oculos ut non videant, et aures ut non audiant, usque in hodiernum diem.
9. Et David dicit: Fiat mensa eorum in laqueum, et in captionem, et in scandalum, et in retributionem illis.
10. Obscurentur oculi eorum ne videant: et dorsum eorum semper incurva.
11. Dico ergo: Numquid sic offenderunt ut caderent? Absit. Sed illorum delicto, salus est gentibus ut illos æmulentur.
12. Quod si delictum illorum divitiæ sunt mundi, et diminutio eorum divitiæ gentium: quanto magis plenitudo eorum?
13. Vobis enim dico gentibus: Quamdiu quidem ego sum gentium Apostolus, ministerium meum honorificabo,
14. si quomodo ad æmulandum provocem carnem meam, et salvos faciam aliquos ex illis.
15. Si enim amissio eorum, reconciliatio est mundi: quæ assumptio, nisi vita ex mortuis?
16. Quod si delibatio sancta est, et massa: et si radix sancta, et rami.
17. Quod si aliqui ex ramis fracti sunt, tu autem cum oleaster esses, insertus es in illis, et socius radicis, et pinguedinis olivæ factus es,
18. noli gloriari adversus ramos. Quod si gloriaris: non tu radicem portas, sed radix te.
19. Dices ergo: Fracti sunt rami ut ego inserar.
20. Bene: propter incredulitatem fracti sunt. Tu autem fide stas: noli altum sapere, sed time.
21. Si enim Deus naturalibus ramis non pepercit: ne forte nec tibi parcat.
22. Vide ergo bonitatem, et severitatem Dei: in eos quidem qui ceciderunt, severitatem: in te autem bonitatem Dei, si permanseris in bonitate, alioquin et tu excideris.
23. Sed et illi, si non permanserint in incredulitate, inserentur: potens est enim Deus iterum inserere illos.
24. Nam si tu ex naturali excisus es oleastro, et contra naturam insertus es in bonam olivam: quanto magis ii qui secundum naturam inserentur suæ olivæ?
25. Nolo enim vos ignorare, fratres, mysterium hoc (ut non sitis vobis ipsis sapientes), quia cæcitas ex parte contigit in Israël, donec plenitudo gentium intraret,
26. et sic omnis Israël salvus fieret, sicut scriptum est: Veniet ex Sion, qui eripiat, et avertat impietatem a Jacob.
27. Et hoc illis a me testamentum: cum abstulero peccata eorum.
28. Secundum Evangelium quidem, inimici propter vos: secundum electionem autem, carissimi propter patres.
29. Sine pœnitentia enim sunt dona et vocatio Dei.
30. Sicut enim aliquando et vos non credidistis Deo, nunc autem misericordiam consecuti estis propter incredulitatem illorum:
31. ita et isti nunc non crediderunt in vestram misericordiam: ut et ipsi misericordiam consequantur.
32. Conclusit enim Deus omnia in incredulitate, ut omnium misereatur.
33. O altitudo divitiarum sapientiæ, et scientiæ Dei: quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus, et investigabiles viæ ejus!
34. Quis enim cognovit sensum Domini? aut quis consiliarius ejus fuit?
35. aut quis prior dedit illi, et retribuetur ei?
36. Quoniam ex ipso, et per ipsum, et in ipso sunt omnia: ipsi gloria in sæcula. Amen.

## Catechism of the Catholic Church

Paragraph numbers and the Catechism's own section headings (never quoted); text at vatican.va.
- CCC ¶ 674: He Will Come Again in Glory ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 755: The Church in God's Plan ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- cf. CCC ¶ 60: The Stages of Revelation ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 591: Jesus and Israel ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))
- CCC ¶ 839: The Church Is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic ([vatican.va index](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM))

## The saints

- “If you understand it, it is not God.” — St. Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 117, c. 418 (On this theme: verse 33)
- “The Scriptures are shallow enough for a lamb to wade in and deep enough for an elephant to swim.” — St. Jerome, popular saying, source unconfirmed (Attributed: verse 33)

## Bishop Challoner's notes

Bp. Richard Challoner, notes on the Douay-Rheims (1750); they comment on its older wording.
- Verse 4: “Seven thousand” … This is very ill alleged by some, against the perpetual visibility of the church of Christ; the more, because however the number of the faithful might be abridged by the persecution of Jezabel in the kingdom of the ten tribes, the church was at the same time in a most flourishing condition (under Asa and Josaphat) in the kingdom of Judah.
- Verse 6: “It is not now by works” … If salvation were to come by works, done by nature, without faith and grace, salvation would not be a grace or favour, but a debt; but such dead works are indeed of no value in the sight of God towards salvation. It is not the same with regard to works done with, and by, God's grace; for to such works as these, he has promised eternal salvation.
- Verse 8: Not by his working or acting in them; but by his permission, and by withdrawing his grace in punishment of their obstinacy.
- Verse 11: “That they should fall” … The nation of the Jews is not absolutely and without remedy cast off for ever; but in part only, (many thousands of them having been at first converted,) and for a time; which fall of theirs, God has been pleased to turn to the good of the Gentiles.
- Verse 20: We see here that he who standeth by faith may fall from it; and therefore must live in fear, and not in the vain presumption and security of modern sectaries.
- Verse 22: The Gentiles are here admonished not to be proud, nor to glory against the Jews: but to take occasion rather from their fall to fear and to be humble, lest they be cast off. Not that the whole church of Christ can ever fall from him; having been secured by so many divine promises in holy writ; but that each one in particular may fall; and therefore all in general are to be admonished to beware of that, which may happen to any one in particular.
- Verse 29: his repenting himself of them; for the promises of God are unchangeable, nor can he repent of conferring his gifts.
- Verse 32: He hath found all nations, both Jews and Gentiles, in unbelief and sin; not by his causing, but by the abuse of their own free will; so that their calling and election is purely owing to his mercy.

## Read at Mass (US)

- Sat, Oct 30, 2027 (computed): Saturday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time — First Reading, Romans 11:1-2a, 11-12, 25-29

Dates after May 31, 2027 are computed by Bless from the US Lectionary cycle — confirm with your parish.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).