Albert Barnes Commentary Romans 9:28

"for the Lord will execute [his] word upon the earth, finishing it and cutting it short." — Romans 9:28 (ASV)

He will finish the work. This is taken from the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 10:23. The Hebrew is, "The Lord God of hosts will make a consumption, even determined, in the midst of all the land." Or, as it may be rendered, "Destruction is decreed which will make justice overflow; indeed, destruction is truly determined on; the Lord Jehovah will execute it in the midst of all the land" (Stuart).

The Septuagint and the apostle adhere to the sense of the passage but do not follow the words. The phrase, will finish the work, means, he will bring the thing to an end, or will accomplish it. It is an expression applicable to a firm purpose to accomplish an object. It refers here to his threat of cutting off the people and means that he will fulfill it.

Cut it short. This word here means to execute it speedily. The destruction will not be delayed.

In righteousness. So as to manifest his own justice. The work, though apparently severe, yet will be a just expression of God's abhorrence of the sins of the people.

Because a short work. The word here rendered "short" means, properly, that which is determined on or decreed. This is the sense of the Hebrew; and the phrase here denotes the purpose which was determined on in relation to the Jews.

Upon the earth. Upon the land of Israel. See Barnes Matthew 5:5; See Barnes Matthew 4:8.

The design for which the apostle introduces this passage is to show that God long ago destroyed many of the Jews for their sin; and that, therefore, the doctrine of the apostle was no new thing, that the Jews might be excluded from the peculiar privileges of the children of God.