¹⁵ For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^{(B) 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.”^{[b](C) 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(D)

¹⁹ One of you will say to me:^(E) “Then why does God still blame us?^(F) For who is able to resist his will?”^{(G) 20} But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(H) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(I) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[c](J) 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?^(K)

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^(L) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^{(M) 23} What if he did this to make the riches of his glory^(N) known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory^(O)—