²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(A) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(B) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[a](C) 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?^(D)

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