Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Romans · About this commentary
Eyes That They Should Not See
Romans 11:7-10
7 What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn’t obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened. · WEB
The hardening texts are quoted at full strength, and one phrase in them holds the door open — to this very day.
What then? That which Israel seeks for, that he didn't obtain, but the chosen ones obtained it, and the rest were hardened.
The summary divides the nation into the remnant and the rest, and the word over the rest is the hard one: hardened — calloused, the medical term for tissue grown insensible. The seeking failed not for lack of effort Romans 10:2 but for its manner Romans 9:32, and what settled over the unseeking seekers is described with two citations that must be heard at full strength.
From the law and the prophets fused: God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, to this very day Romans 11:8. The words are Deuteronomy's and Isaiah's — Israel's own canon repeatedly diagnosing Israel's unresponsiveness, and attributing the stupor to God's judicial giving: the sentence that lets refusers have their refusal, as chapter 1 described it falling on the nations Romans 1:24.
And from David: let their table be made a snare... let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see Romans 11:9–10 — the imprecation of the righteous sufferer's psalm, the psalm of the vinegar and the gall, applied to the generation that crucified its Messiah: the table — the place of security and blessing — become the trap.
These are the severest sentences in the three chapters, and two observations keep them in the letter's frame rather than a colder one.
First, the hardening is judicial, not arbitrary — it falls on a pursuit already misaimed Romans 9:31–32, as Pharaoh's confirmed a course already chosen Romans 9:17. Scripture's hardenings are verdicts on refusal, not causes of it.
Second, the citation itself carries a time-stamp: to this very day. A condition dated is a condition bounded — to this day is not forever, and the next verse will ask exactly the question the time-stamp invites: did they stumble that they might fall? The answer is the letter's tenth and final May it never be! Romans 11:11 — the hardening, it will turn out, is partial and until Romans 11:25, a station on mercy's route, not a terminus.
held with reason What this mark means