Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Romans 2:24

"For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you, even as it is written." — Romans 2:24 (ASV)

Abruptly the shadow-boxing turns aggressive and the blows become lethal as the Jew is confronted by the disparity between what he teaches others as the will of God and his own manner of life. The thrust loses nothing of its forthrightness by being posed in a series of questions, for the effect is to turn the complacent Jew back on himself to search his own soul.

The indictment is summarized by the general charge of breaking the very law the Jew boasts of (v.23). In fact, the failure is so notorious that even non-Jews notice the discrepancy. At this point Paul introduces a quotation from Isa 52:5. God has been obliged to chasten his disobedient people by permitting them to go into captivity, where their captors make sport of their God who was apparently unable to prevent their deportation (cf. Ezekiel 36:20–21). But there also the fault lay not with God but with his people who had refused to take his law seriously.