¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{[a](A) 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(B)

¹⁹ One of you will say to me:^(C) “Then why does God still blame us?^(D) For who is able to resist his will?”^{(E) 20} But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(F) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(G) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[b](H) 21} Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?^(I)

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^(J) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^{(K) 23} What if he did this to make the riches of his glory^(L) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory^(M)— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called,^(N) not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?^(O)

¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal,^(A) but I press on to take hold^(B) of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.^(C)