Verse 7 Israel; Israel in general.--He seeketh for; looketh for; that is, the justification which he expects on account of his alleged obedience of the law.--Were blinded; were blind, as some say, in order to avoid the necessity of supposing any agency on the part of Jehovah in respect to the moral character of wicked men. But the expression in the Romans 11:8, "God has given them the spirit of slumber," seems very unequivocal. They, however, who cannot submit to the doctrine which it seems to teach, shelter themselves from it by saying that God is represented in the Scriptures as doing that which he does not interpose to prevent. And it must be conceded that this interpretation is confirmed by the form in which the passage originally occurs in the book from which it is quoted here. (Romans 11:8; Deuteronomy 29:4.) The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear. Romans 11:11,12. The rejection of the gospel by the Jews, under the preaching of the apostles, almost every where resulted in turning the apostles to the Gentiles, and was thus the occasion of promoting the wider extension of Christianity.--Their fulness; their general acceptance of the gospel.