⁹ Paul repeats the question of 3:1: Are we – that is, we Jews – any better off? No. The Jews have been entrusted with the oracles of God, but possession of the law has not given them immunity from sin: they are just as much under sin as the pagan world, as is clear from scripture.

^10-18 The texts that he quotes in 3:10-18 speak not of a universal condition of sinfulness but of corruption and unrighteousness in Israel: the powerful and corrupt who have led Israel astray, exploited the people, and oppressed the poor (Ps. 14); the ‘bloodthirsty and deceitful’ men who have rebelled against YHWH and who will be cast out ‘because of the abundance of their transgressions’ (Ps. 5); the ‘violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually’ (Ps. 140); the arrogant and greedy who ‘hotly pursue the poor’ and murder the innocent (Ps. 10); the unrighteous whose ‘iniquities have made a separation between you and your God’ (Is. 59:1-8); the wicked man who ‘flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated’ (Ps. 36).

These texts stand not merely as a condemnation of the unrighteous in Israel. They also speak of YHWH providing refuge for the poor, delivering the downtrodden, judging the wicked, defeating the enemies of his people, establishing righteousness in Israel. When the Lord sees the extent of wickedness in Israel, he will put on justice against the wicked as a breastplate, deliverance of the poor as a helmet, vengeance against his enemies as clothing, and zeal for his people as a cloak; he will repay wrath to his adversaries according to their deeds; he will come to Zion to redeem his people from transgression (Is. 59:17-20). This full narrative needs to be kept in view.

¹⁹ The phrase whatever the law says presumably refers to the quotations listed in the preceding verses: what the law says here applies to those in the law. Paul is still pursuing his central argument in these chapters, which is that Israel has sinned and faces condemnation on the day of wrath. It is not so clear whether the second part of the verse is meant to include Israel in the coming judgment (thus repeating the argument of the first part of the verse) or to extend the judgment on Israel to include the Gentile world. The basic point, however, is that on the day of wrath the mouths of the wicked – both Jew and Gentile – will be stopped and the righteous vindicated. Here we have taken a slightly bold step by reading into Paul’s argument the narrative of Psalm 107:39-42 (cf. Job 5:16; Ps. 63:11). When the redeemed of the Lord are ‘diminished and brought low through oppression, evil, and sorrow’, the Lord defeats their oppressors and ‘raises up the needy out of affliction’. Then the ‘upright see it and are glad, and all wickedness shuts its mouth’. This very plausible background reinforces the ethical and social dimension to the judgment that is envisaged.