11 

11:25  St. Paul calls any truth known but to a few, a mystery. Such had been the calling of the gentiles: such was now the conversion of the Jews. Lest ye should be wise in your own conceits - Puffed up with your present advantages; dreaming that ye are the only church; or that the church of Rome cannot fail. Hardness in part is happened to Israel, till - Israel therefore is neither totally nor finally rejected.The fullness of the gentiles be come in - Till there be a vast harvest amongst the heathens.

11:26  And so all Israel shall be saved - Being convinced by the coming of the gentiles. But there will be a still larger harvest among the gentiles, when all Israel is come in. The deliverer shall come - Yea, the deliverer is come; but not the full fruit of his coming. Isa 59:20

11:28  They are now enemies - To the gospel, to God, and to themselves, which God permits. For your sake: but as for the election - That part of them who believe, they are beloved.

11:29  For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance - God does not repent of his gifts to the Jews, or his calling of the gentiles.

11:32  For God hath shut up all together in disobedience - Suffering each in their turn to revolt from him. First, God suffered the gentiles in the early age to revolt, and took the family of Abraham as a peculiar seed to himself. Afterwards he permitted them to fall through unbelief, and took in the believing gentiles. And he did even this to provoke the Jews to jealousy, and so bring them also in the end to faith. This was truly a mystery in the divine conduct, which the apostle adores with such holy astonishment.

11:33  O the depth of the riches, and wisdom, and knowledge of God - In the ninth chapter, St. Paul had sailed but in a narrow sea: now he is in the ocean.The depth of the riches is described, Rom 11:35;
the depth of wisdom, Rom 11:34;
the depth of knowledge, in the latter part of this verse.Wisdom directs all things to the best end; knowledge sees that end.How unsearchable are his judgments - With regard to unbelievers.His ways - With regard to believers.His ways are more upon a level; His judgments "a great deep." But even his ways we cannot trace.

11:34  Who hath known the mind of the Lord - Before or any farther than he has revealed it. Isa 40:13.

11:35  Given to him - Either wisdom or power?

11:36  Of him - As the Creator. Through him - As the Preserver. To him - As the ultimate end, are all things.To him be the glory of his riches, wisdom, knowledge.Amen - A concluding word, in which the affection of the apostle, when it is come to the height, shuts up all.

12 

12:1 His disciples plucked the ears of corn, and ate - Just what sufficed for present necessity: dried corn was a common food among the Jews. Mar 2:23; Luk 6:1.

12:3 Have ye not read what David did - And necessity was a sufficient plea for his transgressing the law in a higher instance.

12:4 He entered into the house of God - Into the tabernacle. The temple was not yet built. The show bread - So they called the bread which the priest, who served that week, put every Sabbath day on the golden table that was in the holy place, before the Lord. The loaves were twelve in number, and represented the twelve tribes of Israel: when the new were brought, the stale were taken away, but were to be eaten by the priests only. Mat 21:6.

12:5 The priests in the temple profane the Sabbath - That is, do their ordinary work on this, as on a common day, cleansing all things, and preparing the sacrifices. A greater than the temple - If therefore the Sabbath must give way to the temple, much moremust it give way to me.

12:7 I will have mercy and not sacrifice - That is, when they interfere with each other, I always prefer acts of mercy, before matters of positive institution: yea, before all ceremonial institutions whatever; because these being only means of religion, are suspended of course, if circumstances occur, wherein they clash with love, which is the end of it. Mat 9:13.

12:8 For the Son of man - Therefore they are guiltless, were it only on this account, that they act by my authority, and attend on me in my ministry, as the priests attended on God in the temple: is Lord even of the Sabbath - This certainly implies, that the Sabbath was an institution of great and distinguished importance; it may perhaps also refer to that signal act of authority which Christ afterward exerted over it, in changing it from the seventh to the first day of the week. If we suppose here is a transposition of the 7th and 8th verses, then the 8th verse is a proof of the 6th. Mat 12:6-8.