¹⁵For to Moses he says, “I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion.”ⁱ ¹⁶Consequently therefore, it does not depend on the^j one who wills or on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy. ¹⁷For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very reason I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^k ¹⁸Consequently therefore, he has mercy on whomever he wishes, and he hardens whomever he wishes.

¹⁹Therefore you will say to me, “Why then does he still find fault? For who has resisted^l his will? ²⁰On the contrary, O man, who are you who answers back to God? Will what is molded say to the one who molded it, “Why did you make me like this”?^m ²¹Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that is for honorable useⁿ and one that is for ordinary use^o? ²²And what if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? ²³And he did so^* in order that he could make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he prepared beforehand for glory, ²⁴us whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

Read in Logos

Romans 9:16: So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy.

Footnotes

iA quotation from Exod 33:19
jLiterally “not of the”
kA quotation from Exod 9:16
lOr “who resists”
mA quotation from Isa 29:16; 45:9
nLiterally “honor”
oLiterally “dishonor”
*The words “he did so” are not in the Greek text, but are an understood repetition from the previous clause