Romans 10:1

Romans 10:1. Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.

Paul is writing concerning: the Jews - the very people who had driven him from city to city, and who had again and again sought to take his life. Yet he could not forget that these men were his own countrymen; and, consequently, with a consecrated patriotism, he desired beyond everything else that they might be saved.