John Gill Commentary Romans 10:1

"Brethren, my heart`s desire and my supplication to God is for them, that they may be saved." — Romans 10:1 (ASV)

Brethren, my heart's desire
The apostle having suggested that a few of the Jews only should be called and saved; that the far greater part should be rejected; that the Israelites who sought righteousness but did not attain it, while the Gentiles did, stumbled and fell at Christ, and would be ashamed and confounded.

And knowing the prejudices of that people against him, therefore lest what he had said, or should say on this subject, be thought to arise from hatred and ill will towards them, he judged it proper, as before, to express his trouble and sorrow on their account. So now his great love and affection for them, which he signifies by calling them "brethren".

For not the Roman believers are here addressed, as if he was telling them how much he loved his own nation; but either the Jews in general, whom he looked upon and loved as his brethren according to the flesh; and whatever they thought of him, he considered them in such a relation to him, which obliged him to a concern for their good and welfare.

Or rather the believing Jews, who were members of the church at Rome, whom, besides using the common style of the Jewish nation (who were wont to call all of their country brethren), he could speak to as being such in a spiritual relation, being children of the same father, partakers of the same grace and privileges, and heirs of the same glory.

Now he declares to these persons that the "desire [of his] heart" was towards Israel. He bore a good will to them, his mind was well disposed and affected towards them, he had a cordial, sincere, and hearty respect for them; and so far was he from being their enemy that he continually bore them upon his mind at the throne of grace: and his

prayer to God for Israel [was], that they might be saved ;
not only that they might be saved in a temporal sense, from these grievous calamities and sore judgments he saw were coming upon them, which he had reason to believe would issue in their destruction as a nation and church; but that they might be spiritually converted, turned from their evil ways, and brought to believe in Christ, whom they had despised and rejected, and so be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation:

This he might desire not only from a natural affection for them, but as a minister of the Gospel, who cannot but wish that all who hear him might be converted and saved. And as a believer in Christ he might pray for this in submission to the will of God; and especially as he knew there was a seed, a remnant according to the election of grace, at that present time among them, that should be saved, though the larger number of them were cast off.

The Alexandrian copy, and some others, read "for them", instead of "for Israel"; not naming them, being easily understood; and so the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions.