Romans 11:32

11:32 have mercy on everyone: Everyone has the sense of “all kinds of people.” In the context of Romans, and especially this chapter, it refers to the inclusion of Gentiles alongside Jews.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Rom 11:32. Συνέκλεισε, hath concluded together), Jews and Gentiles, comp. Gal 3:22, note. The phraseology of the LXX. Int., Psa 78:50, is εἰς θάνατον συνέκλεισε, He shut up to death, he gave over.—εἰς ἀπείθειαν, in [unto] disbelief) Eph 2:2. Those who have experienced the power of disbelief, at length betake themselves with the greater sincerity and simplicity to faith.—ἳνα) that. The thing itself will be accomplished.—τοὺς πάντας) them all without exception, [less accurately, all, in Engl. Vers.] all together; comp. Rom 11:30-31.—ἐλεήσῃ, might have mercy) His mercy being acknowledged by them, Rom 11:6, when faith is given to them by Himself.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_11:32. Establishment of Rom_11:30 f., and that by an exhibition of the universal divine procedure, with the order of which that which is said in Rom_11:31 of the now disobedient Jews and their deliverance is incorporated. Thus Rom_11:32 is at once the grand summary and the glorious key-stoneimpelling once more to the praise of God (Rom_11:33 ff.)of the whole preceding section of the epistle.

σνγκλείω εἰς: to include in (2Ma_5:5, comp. Luk_5:6), has, in the later Greek (Diod. Sic. xix. 19, comp. xx. 74, frequently in Polybius), and in the LXX. (after the Heb. הִסְגִּיר with לְּ), also the metaphorical sense: to hand over unto or under a power which holds as it were in ward. Comp. on Gal_3:22-23. Correspondent, as regards the notion, is παρέδωκε, Rom_1:24. The compound expression strengthens the meaning; it does not denote simul (Bengel and others).

The effective sense is not to be changed, which has been attempted by taking it sometimes as declarative (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Grotius, Zeger, Glass, Wolf, Carpzov, Wetstein, Ch. Schmidt), sometimes as permissive (Origen, Cornelius a Lapide, Estius, and many others, including Flatt and Tholuck).

ΕἸς ἈΠΕΊΘ.] towards God; see Rom_11:30-31.

ΤΟῪς ΠΆΝΤΑς] Of Gentiles (ὙΜΕῖς) and Jews (ΟὟΤΟΙ) Paul has previously spoken; hence ΟἹ ΠΆΝΤΕς now comprises the totality, namely all Jews and Gentiles jointly and severally,cunctos s. universos, i. e. singulos in unum corpus colligatos, Ellendt, Lex. Soph. II. p. 521. Comp. on the subject-matter, Rom_3:9; Rom_3:19; Gal_3:22. So necessarily also the following τοὺς πάντας. The view which understands only the two masses of Jews and Gentiles, these two halves of mankind in the gross (usually so taken recently, as by Tholuck, Fritzsche, Philippi, Ewald, Weiss), cannot suit the comprehensive Τ. ΠΆΝΤΑς (as if it were equal to ΤΟῪς ἈΜΦΟΤΈΡΟΥς), since it is by no means appropriate to the mere number of two, but only to their collective subjects. Not even the Jewish ἘΚΛΟΓΉ, Rom_11:7; Rom_11:28, is to be excepted (Maier, van Hengel), because its subjects were also before their conversion sinners (Rom_3:23), and therefore subjected to the power of disobedience towards God; for the ΣΥΝΈΚΛΕΙΣΕ … ἈΠΕΙΘΕΊΑΝ points back, in the case of each single member of the collective whole, to the time before conversion and until conversion. If we should desire to refer ΟἹ ΠΆΝΤΕς merely to the Jews (van Hengel by way of a suggestion, and Hofmann), who are meant as a people in their collective shape (consequently not in all individuals; see Hofmann), the close relationship between Rom_11:30 and Rom_11:31 would be opposed to it, since the reference of ΓΆΡ merely to the apodosis in Rom_11:31 is quite arbitrary; and, indeed, the bold concluding thought in Rom_11:32 possesses its great significance and its suitableness to the following outburst of praise, simply and solely through its all-comprehensive contents. And even apart from this, ΤΟῪς ΠΆΝΤΑς in fact never denotes: them as a collective whole, as a people, but, as universally (in 1Co_9:22; 1Co_10:17; 2Co_5:14; Php_2:21; comp. Eph_4:13; 2Ma_11:11; 2Ma_12:40, et al., and in all the classical writers) all of them, as also only in this sense does the suitable emphasis fall on the repetition in the apodosis.

ἵνα τ. π. ἐλεήσῃ] in order that He may have mercy upon all. This divine purpose Paul saw to be already in part attained,namely, in the case of all already converted; but its general fulfilment lay, to his view, in the development of the future on to the great terminus expressed in Rom_11:25 f. We may observe that our passage is at variance not merely with the decretum reprobationis (hanc particulam universalem opponamus tentationi de particularitate …; non fingamus in Deo contradictorias voluntates, Melanchthon), but also with the view (Olshausen, Krummacher, and older expositors) that Paul means the collective body of the elect. See rather Rom_11:25 f. The ἀποκατάστασις is not, however, to be based on our passage for this reason, that the universality of the divine purpose of redemption (comp. 1Ti_2:4), as well as the work of redemption having taken place for the justification of all (Rom_11:18), does not exclude its final non-realization in part through the fault of the individuals concerned, and cannot do away with either the applicability of the purpose-clause exhibited in principle and summarily in prophetic fashion (comp. remark on Rom_11:25), nor with the divine judgment on final concrete self-frustrations of the counsel of salvation. And this the less, because such misinterpretations of the universalistic axiom are opposed by the apostles doctrine of election as a sure corrective. There has been incorrectly discovered in such general expressions a want of consistency on the part of Paul, namely, undeveloped outlines of a liberal conception (Georgii in the Theol. Jahrb. 1845, I. p. 25).

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rom_11:32

For God hath concluded all in unbelief; συγκλείω εἰς, in a literal or local sense, means, to shut up together in a place; and metaphorically, to deliver over to the power of. Here the idea is, that God, in the dispensation of his providence and grace, has so ordered things, that all Gentiles and Jews, first the one, and then the other, should reveal their true character as sinners, and stand out in history confessed as unbelieves. For examples of a similar form of expression, see Psa_31:8, Thou hast shut me up (συνέκλεισας) into the hands of the enemy; Psa_78:50, He gave their life over (συνέκλεισεν) to the pestilence. Compare Gal_3:22. In none of these cases is the word used simply declaratively, God declared them to be unbelieves. Nor is mere permission all that is expressed. Gods efficiency or control is directly asserted. God gave the Psalmist into the hands of his enemy, and he gave up first the Gentiles and then the Jews, unto unbelief. The agency of God in giving men up to sin is punitive; it is consistent with their liberty and responsibility, and with his own holiness. He does not cause their sin, but he so orders his dispensations, that their sinfulness is revealed, and the mode of its manifestations determined. It seems also to enter into the design of the apostle to show that God had dealt alike with Gentile and Jew. They stood on the same ground. Both were dependent on sovereign mercy. Both had sunk into a state from which the grace of God alone could save them. As all were equally miserable and helpless, God determined to have mercy upon all, and to bring all, Jews as well as Gentiles, into the fold of Christ.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Both Jews and Gentiles.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief--"hath shut them all up to unbelief"

that he might have mercy upon all--that is, those "all" of whom he had been discoursing; the Gentiles first, and after them the Jews [FRITZSCHE, THOLUCK, OLSHAUSEN, DE WETTE, PHILIPPI, STUART, HODGE]. Certainly it is not "all mankind individually" [MEYER, ALFORD]; for the apostle is not here dealing with individuals, but with those great divisions of mankind, Jew and Gentile. And what he here says is that God's purpose was to shut each of these divisions of men to the experience first of an humbled, condemned state, without Christ, and then to the experience of His mercy in Christ.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 32. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief] Συνεκλεισε γαρ ὁ Θεος, God hath shut or locked them all up under unbelief. This refers to the guilty state of both Jews and Gentiles. They had all broken God's law-the Jews, the written law; the Gentiles, the law written in their hearts; see Ro 1:19; Ro 1:20; Ro 2:14; Ro 2:15. They are represented here as having been accused if their transgressions; tried at God's bar; found guilty on being tried; condemned to the death they had merited; remanded to prison, till the sovereign will, relative to their execution, should be announced; shut or locked up, under the jailer, unbelief; and there both continued in the same state, awaiting the execution of their sentence: but God, in his own compassion, moved by no merit in either party, caused a general pardon by the Gospel to be proclaimed to all. The Jews have refused to receive this pardon on the terms which God has proposed it, and therefore continue locked up under unbelief. The Gentiles have welcomed the offers of grace, and are delivered out of their prison. But, as the offers of mercy continue to be made to all indiscriminately, the time will come when the Jews, seeing the vast accession of the Gentile world to the kingdom of the Messiah, and the glorious privileges which they in consequence enjoy, shall also lay hold on the hope set before them, and thus become with the Gentiles one flock under one shepherd and bishop of all their souls. The same figure is used Ga 3:22, Ga 3:23. But the Scripture hath concluded συνεκλεισεν, locked up all under sin, that the promise, by faith of Christ Jesus, might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept, εφρουρουμεθα, we were guarded as in a strong hold, under the law; shut up, συγκεκλεισμενοι, locked up together unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. It is a fine and well chosen metaphor in both places, and forcibly expresses the guilty, helpless, wretched state of both Jews and Gentiles.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

32. For God has shut up, etc. A remarkable conclusion, by which he shows that there is no reason why they who have a hope of salvation should despair of others; for whatever they may now be, they have been like all the rest. If they have emerged from unbelief through God’s mercy alone, they ought to leave place for it as to others also. For he makes the Jews equal in guilt with the Gentiles, that both might understand that the avenue to salvation is no less open to others than to them. For it is the mercy of God alone which saves; and this offers itself to both. This sentence then corresponds with the testimony of Hosea, which he had before quoted, “I will call those my people who were not my people.” But he does not mean, that God so blinds all men that their unbelief is to be imputed to him; but that he hath so arranged by his providence, that all should be guilty of unbelief, in order that he might have them subject to his judgment, and for this end, — that all merits being buried, salvation might proceed from his goodness alone.

Paul then intends here to teach two things — that there is nothing in any man why he should be preferred to others, apart from the mere favor of God; and that God in the dispensation of his grace, is under no restraint that he should not grant it to whom he pleases. There is an emphasis in the word mercy; for it intimates that God is bound to none, and that he therefore saves all freely, for they are all equally lost. But extremely gross is their folly who hence conclude that all shall be saved; for Paul simply means that both Jews and Gentiles do not otherwise obtain salvation than through the mercy of God, and thus he leaves to none any reason for complaint. It is indeed true that this mercy is without any difference offered to all, but every one must seek it by faith.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(32) Unhappy as the fate of the world might seem, first the Gentiles and then the Jews being consigned to a state of disobedience, this has really had a merciful object in the end. It will lead to a happy and complete reunion, “one flock under one shepherd.”

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief.—A weighty sentence embracing the whole course of human history, and summing up the divine philosophy of the whole matter. We might almost take these profound words of St. Paul as a motto for the theological side of the theory of evolution. Severe and rigorous as that doctrine may seem, its goal is perfection, the absolute harmony of all things working in accordance with the divine will. And if an objection is taken on the ground of the waste of individual life, this may be subject to we know not what beneficent rectifications in a sphere removed from that of the senses. We are able to see only a “part of God’s ways,” and the drift and tendency of visible things makes it not difficult for us to believe that “all things work together for good,” even where the process by which they do so is not to be traced by the human eye.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32. For God, &c.] Lit. For God did shut up the all together into disobedience, that He may compassionate the all. We give this literal version, though barbarous as English, to elucidate the exact reference of the Greek. “The all” are “all the persons in question”; Gentiles and Jews alike, who by turns have occupied the position of aliens from the enjoyment of salvation. The Divine Sovereign has permitted each great class in turn thus to develope its own sin of rebellious unbelief, (“shutting them up into it,” as into a cage, or trap, into which they have leapt,) in order to the complete display of mercy, and only mercy, wholly apart from privilege or merit, in the salvation both of Gentiles and of Jews. Here again mercy is the emphatic idea.—“Did shut up:”—i.e. when He “cut off” the Jews: for this completed, as it were, the process of that developement of unbelief which was to bring out into clear light the equal sovereignty of mercy in all cases.

“All” must manifestly be taken here, as so often elsewhere, (see on ch. Rom_5:18,) with limitation. St Paul is contemplating not the whole race, but the whole Church in its two great elements—Gentile and Jewish. See Rom_2:8-9, for his distinct warning of a “judgment without mercy” on the impenitent and unbelieving, Gentiles and Jews alike.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For God hath concluded them all in unbelief,.... Both Jews and Gentiles, particularly God's elect among them: some think the metaphor is taken from the binding up of sheaves in bands; and that Jews and Gentiles are the sheaves, and unbelief the band, in which they are bound together; but the apostle is not speaking of their being together in unbelief, but as separate, first the Gentiles, and now the Jews: rather it seems to be taken from a prison, and Jews and Gentiles are represented as prisoners, and unbelief the prison, in which they are shut up by God: not that God is the author of unbelief, or of any other sin in men; he does not put it into them, or them into that, but finding them in unbelief, concludes them in it, or leaves them in such a state, and does not as yet however deliver out of it, or say to the prisoners, go forth: moreover, to be "concluded in unbelief", is the same as to be "concluded under sin", Gal 3:22; that is, to be thoroughly convinced of it; and to be held and bound down by such a sense of it in the conscience, as to see no way to escape deserved punishment, or to obtain salvation, but by fleeing to the mercy of God in Christ:

that he might have mercy upon all: not upon all the individuals of Jews and Gentiles; for all are not concluded in, or convinced of the sin of unbelief, but only such who are eventually believers, as appears from the parallel text, Gal 3:22; and designs all God's elect among the Jews, called "their fulness", Rom 11:12; and all God's elect among the Gentiles, called "the fulness of the Gentiles", Rom 11:25; for whom he has mercy in store, and will bestow it on them; and in order to bring them to a sense of their need of it, and that he may the more illustriously display the riches of it, he leaves them for a while in a state of unbelief, and then by his Spirit thoroughly convinces them of it, and gives them faith to look to, and believe in, the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, unto eternal life.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.

Ver. 32. For God hath concluded] Or locked them all up in the law’s dark dungeon, αυνεκλεισε, Gal 3:22. Unbelief breaks all the law at an instant by rejecting Christ, as the first act of faith obeys all the law at an instant in Christ.

That he might have mercy upon all] Luther in a very great conflict was relieved and comforted by the often repeating of this sweet sentence.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For God hath concluded ... - The word translated here “concluded” sunekleise, is rendered in the margin “shut them all up together.” It is properly used in reference to those who are shut up in prison, or to those in a city who are shut up by a besieging army; 1 Macc. 5:5; 6:18; 11:65; 15:25; Jos 6:6; Isa 45:1. It is used in the New Testament of fish taken in a net; Luk 5:6, “They enclosed a great multitude of fishes;” Gal 3:22, “But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise, etc.” In this place the Scripture is declared to have shut them up under sin, that is, declared them to be sinners; gave no hope of rescue by any works of their own; and thus kept them Rom 11:23 “shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed.” All are represented, therefore, as in prison, enclosed or confined by God, and to be liberated only in his own way and time. In regard to the agency of God in this, we may remark:

(1) That the word does not mean that God compelled them to disbelieve the gospel. When, in Gal 3:22, the Scripture is said to have included all under sin, it is not meant that the Scripture compelled them not to believe.

(2) The word does not imply that the sin and unbelief for which they were shut up were not voluntary. Even when a man is committed to prison, the crime which brought him there is voluntary, and for it he is responsible.

(3) The keeper of a prison does no wrong in confining a criminal; or the judge in condemning him; or the executioner in fulfilling the sentence of the Law. So of God. What he does is not to compel people to remain under unbelief, but to declare that they are so; so to encompass them with the proof of it that they shall realize that there is no escape from the evidence of it, and thus to press on them the evidence of their need of a Saviour. This he does in relation to all sinners who ever become converted.

(4) Yet God permitted this; suffered Jews and Gentiles to fall into unbelief, and to be concluded under it, because he had a special purpose to answer in leaving man to the power of sin and unbelief. One of those purposes was, doubtless, to manifest the power of his grace and mercy in the plan of redemption.

(5) In all this, and in all other sin man is voluntary. He chooses his course of evil; and God is under no obligation to compel him to do otherwise. Being under unbelief, God declares the fact, and avails himself of it, in the plan of salvation by grace.

Them all - Both Jews and Gentiles.

In unbelief - εἰς eis. “Unto unbelief.” He has delivered them over unto unbelief, as a man is delivered over into prison. This is the literal meaning of the expression.

That he might have mercy upon all - Mercy is favor shown to the undeserving. It could not have been shown to the Jews and the Gentiles unless it was before proved that they were guilty. For this purpose proof was furnished that they were all in unbelief. It was clear, therefore, that if favor was shown to either, it must be on the same ground, that of mere undeserved mercy. Thus, all people were on a level; and thus all might be admitted to heaven without any invidious distinctions, or any dealings that were not in accordance with mercy and love. “The emphasis in this verse is on the word “mercy.” It signifies that God is under obligation to no one, and therefore that all are saved by grace, because all are equally ruined.” (Calvin.) It does not prove that all people will be saved; but that those who are saved shall be alike saved by the mercy of God; and that He intends to confer salvation on Jews and Gentiles on the same terms. This is properly the close of the argument of this Epistle. By several independent trains of reasoning, the apostle had come to the same conclusion, that the Jews had no special privileges in regard to religion, that all people were on a level, and that there was no hope of salvation for any but in the mercy of a sovereign God. This conclusion, and the wonderful train of events which had led to this state of things, give rise to the exclamations and ascriptions of praise with which the chapter closes.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Conclusit omnia. Greek: pantas.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

q.d. God hath, in just judgment, shut up both Jews and Gentiles, equally and successively, in unbelief, as in a prison, that so, in his own time, he might fulfil the counsel of his will, in showing undeserved mercy unto all: i.e. unto both Jews and Gentiles; first the Jews, and then the Gentiles; and then at last, both to Jews and Gentiles. By all here he means, those that shall believe, whether of one sort or of the other, as appears from that parallel place, Gal 3:22. Luther, in a very great conflict, had much support from this text.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

32. Concluded them all in unbelief—Unbelief, a state of entire disobedience.

Concluded—Inasmuch as they first so conclude themselves. The parallel passage in Gal_3:22, reads: “But the Scripture hath concluded all (things, neuter gender) under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.” And the parallel thought is in Rom_5:18. The words suggest the following points, 1. The sentence of death resting personally upon Adam, but for the interposed Redeemer, would have closed his life, and foreclosed posterity. (Note on Joh_14:19.)

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For God hath concluded them all in (literally, shut them all up into) unbelief (or, disobedience), that he might have mercy upon them all. Chrysostom and other Greek Fathers understood sunekleise to mean only declared them to be unbelieving (or, disobedient), or convicted them of being so. Thus Chrysostom, toutestin hlegxen, epedeixen apeiyountav . So, it may be said, must the verb he understood where St. Paul elsewhere uses it with a similar reference in Gal_3:22, h grafh being there the nominative to the verb. But o Yeov being the nominative here, the more obvious meaning seems to be that the shutting up was God"s doing. Some, understanding it so, would soften the expression by explaining that God allowed them to become so shut up. To sunekleise nohteon oti tountav apeiyein eiasen apeiyein (Diodorus), But we need not shrink from the plain meaning of the expression, viz. that it was God"s own act. He is not thus represented as plunging men into inevitable infidelity, having given them no choice. As in the case of the hardening spoken of" above, his dealings are judicial; the state into which. they are now by him shut up has not been undeserved. And, further, his ultimate purpose is here distinctly declared to be one of mercy. The way in which the apostle regards such present judicial dealing as conducive to final mercy appears to be such as this. It is the doctrine of the whole Epistle that salvation is to be attained by man"s renouncing his own imagined righteousness, and submitting himself to the righteousness of God. It conduces to this end that his apeiyeia should have its course and consequences; so that, conscience being at length awakened, he may long for deliverance from his hopeless state, and appreciate the offered salvation (see ch. 7.). So the Gentile world was long shut up in its self-induced, but also judicial, apeiyeia ; (Rom_1:18, seq. ) that, "the wrath of God" being at length revealed to it from heaven, the "righteousness of God" might also be revealed to it and laid hold of. In like manner God deals now with the Jews, who still persist in going about to establish their own righteousness instead of submitting themselves to the righteousness of God. He shuts them up for the present in their apeiyeia , to the end that at length, after their long judgment, and stirred up by the fulness of the Gentiles coming in, they may feel their need, and accept salvation. Tountav in the concluding clause seems to mean generally all mankind, Jews as well as Gentiles; and ina tountav elehsh (as swyhsetai was understood above with respect to "all Israel," as suggested by the context and the general drift of the chapter) God"s embracing all races of mankind at last in the arms of his mercy by calling them into the Church. Thus the latter expression is not in itself adducible in support of the doctrine of universalism. Certainly the prospect of a universal triumph of the gospel before the end rises here before the apostle in prophetic vision; and it may be that it carries with it to his mind further glories of eternal salvation for all, casting their rays backward over all past ages, so as to inspire an unbounded hope. Such a hope, which seems elsewhere intimated, (cf. 1Co_15:24-29 Eph_1:9, Eph_1:10, 20-23 Col_1:15-20) would justify the glowing rhapsody of admiration and thanksgiving that follows more fully than if we supposed the apostle to contemplate still the eternal perdition of the multitudes who in all the ages have not on earth found mercy.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

That is, "Almighty God hath in wisdom and righteousness suffered both Jews and Gentiles successively, for some time, to remain under the power of unbelief and disobedience, that so he might in his own time fulfil the great counsel of his goodness, in showing undeserved mercy unto all, both Jew and Gentile."

Now from all the foregoing arguments, for the calling of the Jews, summed up together in this chapter, we may collect and gather, that the conversion of the Jewish nation to the Christian faith, has good foundation in the holy scriptures, and has been the received doctrine of the church of Christ in all ages of the church.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For God hath shut up all unto disobedience, that he might have mercy upon all . [The verb "shut up" is, as Barnes observes, "properly used in reference to those who are shut up in prison, or to those in a city who are shut up by a besieging army (1 Macc. 5:5; 6:18; 11:65; 15:25; Jos_6:1 ; Isa_45:1 ). It is used in the New Testament of fish taken in a net ( Luk_5:6 )." It here means that God has rendered it impossible for any man, either Jew or Gentile, to save himself by his own merit. For some two thousand years the Gentiles sinned against God as revealed in nature, and broke his unwritten law found in their own consciences ( Rom_1:19-20 ; Rom_2:14-16 ), their sin being known generally as idolatry. And now, for about an equal length of time, the Jews have sinned against God as revealed in Christ, and have broken his written law as found in the Old Testament, their sin being practically the same as that of the Gentiles, though called infidelity. Thus God shut each class up under a hopeless condemnation of disobedience as in a jail, that he might extend a general pardon to each, and save each by his grace and not by human merit. "All" is used in the general sense, and does not signify universal salvation irrespective of belief in Christ ( Gal_3:22 ). It is used here to show that, in shifting from Gentile to Jew, God will act in no arbitrary or partial spirit. He will not reject any of either class who live worthily. It means that hereafter each class shall be equally favored in preaching and all other gospel privileges. "The emphasis," says Calvin, "in this verse is on the word MERCY. It signifies that God is under obligation to no one, and therefore that all are saved by grace, because all are equally ruined."]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

32. For God hath shut up all unto disobedience. Hath included all under disobedience. First the Gentiles were disobedient, but now were called. Now the Jews were disobedient, but would finally be saved. God would have mercy on all, both Jew and Gentile.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

32. συνέκλεισεν γὰρ κ.τ.λ. Cf. Rom 3:9; Rom 3:19; Rom 3:23; Gal 3:22.

τοὺς πάντας. Jew and Gentile alike, regarded as classes: in both classes there were numerous exceptions, but neither class as such was exempt from the doom of disobedience; both need the mercy which is GOD’s ultimate purpose. The point here, as throughout, is to set aside any claim for special consideration on the ground of privilege. Privilege is a sign of GOD’s love but not a guarantee of man’s response; and in the failure of that response men fall under the judgment of GOD.

ἵνα—ἐλεήσῃ. “There is a Divine purpose in the sin of mankind, and in the disobedience of the Jew: the object of both alike is to give occasion for the exhibition of the Divine mercy,” S. H. Man’s disobedience is GOD’s opportunity.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32.] For (foundation of the last stated arrangement in the divine purposes) God shut up (not shut up together; σύν, as in so many cases, implying, not cο-participation on the part of the subjects of the action, but the character of the action itself: so in ‘concludere.’ The sense is here as in the examples, which might be multiplied by consulting Schweig. hæuser’s Index to Polyb., ‘to involve in,’ ‘to subject to.’ The aor., which should be kept in the rendering, refers to the time of the act in the divine procedure) all (the reading τὰ πάντα has probably been introduced from Gal 3:22) men in (into) disobedience (general here,—every form, unbelief included), that He may have mercy on all. No mere permissive act of God must here be understood. The Apostle is speaking of the divine arrangement by which the guilt of sin and the mercy of God were to be made manifest. He treats it, as elsewhere (see ch. 9:18 and note), entirely with reference to the act of God, taking no account, for the time, of human agency; which however, when treating of us and our responsibilities, he brings out into as prominent a position: see as the most eminent example of this, the closely following ch. 12:1, 2.

But there remains some question, who are the οἱ πάντες of both clauses? Are they the same? And if so, is any support given to the notion of an ἀποκατάστασις of all men? Certainly they are identical: and signify all men, without limitation. But the ultimate difference between the all men who are shut up under disobedience, and the all men upon whom mercy is shewn is, that by all men this mercy is not accepted, and so men become self-excluded from the salvation of God. God’s act remains the same, equally gracious, equally universal, whether men accept His mercy or not. This contingency is here not in view: but simply God’s act itself.

We can hardly understand the οἱ πάντες nationally. The marked universality of the expression recalls the beginning of the Epistle, and makes it a solemn conclusion to the argumentative portion, after which the Apostle, overpowered with the view of the divine Mercy and Wisdom, breaks forth into the sublimest apostrophe existing even in the pages of Inspiration itself.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32. St. Paul now generalizes from these instances the character of God’s plan, and concludes his argument with a maxim which solves the riddle of the Divine action. There is a Divine purpose in the sin of mankind described in 1:18-3:20; there is a Divine purpose in the faithlessness of the Jews. The object of both alike is to give occasion for the exhibition of the Divine mercy. If God has shut men up in sin it is only that He may have an opportunity of showing His compassion. So in Gal 3:22 ἀλλὰ συνέκλεισεν ἡ γραφὴ τὰ πάντα ὑπὸ ἁμαρτίαν, ἵνα ἡ ἐπαγγελία ἐκ πίστεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ δοθῇ τοῖς πιστεύουσι, the result of sin is represented as being to give the occasion for the fulfilment of the promise and the mission of the Messiah. All God’s dealings with the race are in accordance with His final purpose. However harsh they may seem, when we contemplate the final end we can only burst forth into thankfulness to God.

συνέκλεισε γὰρ ὁ Θεός: cf. 1:24 f., and see below, p. 347.

συνέκλεισε: Psa 78:62, 77:62] ‘He gave his people over unto the sword (συνέκλεισεν εἰς ῥομφαίαν).’ Used with the pregnant sense of giving over so that there can be no escape.

τοὺς πάντας. Not necessarily every single individual, but all looked at collectively, as the πλήρωμα τῶν ἐθνῶν and πᾶς Ἰσραήλ. All the classes into which the world may be divided, Jew and Gentile alike, will be admitted into the Messianic Kingdom or God’s Church. The reference is not here any more than elsewhere to the final salvation of every individual.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Concluded [συνεκλεισεν] . Only here, Luk 5:6; Gal 3:22, 23. A very literal rendering, etymologically considered; con together, claudere to shut. The A. V. followed the Vulgate conclusit. So Hooker : "The person of Christ was only touching bodily substance concluded within the grave." The word has lost this sense. Rev., hath shut up. Some explain in the later Greek sense, to hand over to a power which holds in ward.

All [τους παντας] . Lit., the all. The totality, Jews and Gentiles, jointly and severally.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vv. 32. “For God hath included all in disobedience, that He might have mercy upon all.”

Here we have, as it were, the full period put to all that precedes the last word in explanation of the whole plan of God, the principal phases of which have just been sketched (for). The term συγκλείειν, to shut up together, applies to a plurality of individuals, enclosed in such a way that they have only one exit, through which they are all forced to pass. The prep. σύν, with, which enters into the composition of the verb, describes the enclosure as subsisting on all sides at once. Some commentators have thought that there must be given to this verb a simply declarative sense, as in Gal 3:22, where it is said: “The Scripture hath concluded all under sin,” in this sense, that it declares all men to be subject to sin and condemnation. But in our passage the action is not ascribed to an impersonal subject like Scripture; the subject is God Himself; it is His dispensations in the course of history which are explained. The verb can therefore only refer to a real act, in virtue of which the two portions of mankind just spoken of have each had their period of disobedience. And the act whereby God has brought about this result, as we know from all that precedes, is the judgment denoted in the case of the Gentiles by the term παρέδωκεν, He gave them up, thrice repeated, Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28, and in the case of the Jews by the word ἐπωρώθησαν, they were hardened, Rom 11:7. Only it must be remarked that this divine action had been provoked in both cases by man’s sin; on the part of the Gentiles through their ingratitude toward the revelation of God in nature, and on the part of the Jews by their ignorant obstinacy in maintaining beyond the fixed time their legal particularism. The Danish theologian Nielsen says with good reason, in his short and spiritual exposition of the Epistle to the Romans: “The sinful nature already existed in all; but that the conviction of it might be savingly awakened in individuals, this latent sin required to be manifested historically on a great scale in the lot of nations.” To be complete, however, it must be added that this latent sin was already manifested actively and freely on the part both of Gentiles and Jews before taking the form of a passive dispensation and of a judgment from God. Thus the act of συγκλείειν, shutting up together, is already justified from the viewpoint of cause; but how much more magnificently still from the viewpoint of end! This end is to make those Jews and Gentiles the objects of universal mercy. The word τοὺς πάντας, all, is applied by Olshausen solely to the totality of the elect in these two parts of mankind; and by Meyer, to all the individuals comprehended in these two masses, but solely, according to this author, in respect of their destination, in the divine mind. For that this destination may be realized, there is needed the free act of faith. But it should not be forgotten that this saying does not refer to the time of the last judgment and the eternal future, which would necessarily suppose the resurrection of the dead, of which there is no question here. According to the whole context, the apostle has in view an epoch in the history of the kingdom of God on this earth, an epoch, consequently, which comprehends only the individuals who shall then be in life. Hence it is that he puts the article τούς, the, before πάντας, all; for the subject in question is a determined and already known totality, that which comprehends the two portions of mankind which Paul has been contrasting with one another throughout the whole chapter.

The domain of disobedience, within which God has successively shut them all up, leaves both in the end only one issue, that of humbly accepting salvation from the hand of mercy. As Nielsen again says: “Divine impartiality, after having been temporarily veiled by two opposite particularisms, sbines forth in the final universalism which embraces in a common salvation all those whom these great judgments have successively humbled and abased.” There is therefore no inference to be drawn from this passage in favor of a final universal salvation (De Wette, Farrar, and so many others), or even of a determinist system, in virtue of which human liberty would be nothing more in the eyes of the apostle than a form of divine action. St. Paul teaches only one thing here: that at the close of the history of mankind on this earth there will be an economy of grace in which salvation will be extended to the totality of the nations living here below, and that this magnificent result will be the effect of the humiliating dispensations through which the two halves of mankind shall have successively passed. The apostle had begun this vast exposition of salvation with the fact of universal condemnation; he closes it with that of universal mercy. What could remain to him thereafter but to strike the hymn of adoration and praise? This is what he does in Rom 11:33-36.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.