Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

God Has Mercy On Whom He Wants, And He Hardens Whom He Wants

¹⁴ Therefore what shall we say? There is not unrighteousness^[a] with God, is there? May it never be! ¹⁵ For He says to Moses [in Ex 33:19], “I will have-mercy-on whomever I have-mercy, and I will have-compassion-on whomever I have compassion”. ¹⁶ So then, mercy is not of ^[b] the one wanting, nor of the one running, but of the One having-mercy^[c]— God. ¹⁷ For the Scripture says to Pharaoh [in Ex 9:16] that “I raised you up for this very purpose: so that I might demonstrate My power^[d] in you, and so that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth”. ¹⁸ So then, He has-mercy-on whom He wants, and He hardens^[e] whom He wants.

The Creator Is Making Known His Wrath And His Mercy In Humankind

¹⁹ Therefore you will say to me, “Why then does He still find-fault? For who has resisted^[f] His will?” ²⁰ O human, on the contrary, who are you, the one answering-back to God? The thing formed will not say to the one having formed it, “Why did you make me like-this?”, will it? ²¹ Or does not the potter have authority over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? ²² But what if God, wanting^[g] to demonstrate His wrath and to make-known His power, bore^[h] with much patience vessels of wrath having been prepared^[i] for destruction, ²³ and did so in order that He might make-known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy which He prepared-beforehand^[j] for glory— ²⁴ even us whom He called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles?

He Is Making Those Not His People His Own Children

²⁵ As^[k] He says also in Hosea: “I will call ‘Not My people’, ‘My people’; and ‘Not having been loved’, ‘Having been loved’” [Hos 2:23]. ²⁶ “And it shall be in the place where it was said to them ‘you are not My people’, there they will be called sons of the living God” [Hos 1:10].

But Only a Remnant of Israel Will Be Saved

²⁷ But^[l] Isaiah cries-out concerning Israel: “If the number of the sons of Israel should be like the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved. ²⁸ For the Lord will accomplish^[m] His word upon the earth, completing^[n] and cutting-short^[o]” [in Isa 10:22-23]. ²⁹ And just as Isaiah said-before [in Isa 1:9]: “Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left-behind a seed for us, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have been likened^[p] as Gomorrah”.