²⁰ But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”^{(A) 21} Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? ²² What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, ²³ and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴ us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?

²⁰ Now in a large house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of clay. Some are for honor and some for dishonor. ²¹ If anyone therefore purges himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and suitable for the master’s use, prepared for every good work.