'People' in the Bible

As he says also in Hosea, "I will call them 'my people,' which were not my people; and her 'beloved,' who was not beloved."

"It will be that in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' There they will be called 'children of the living God.'"

But as to Israel he says, "All day long I stretched out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people."

I ask then, did God reject his people? May it never be! For I also am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God didn't reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don't you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

Again he says, "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people."