Romans 9:15–24

¹⁵For he says to Moses,

“I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,

and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”^fr

¹⁶It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^{s 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.”^{gt 18}Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^u

¹⁹One of you will say to me:^v “Then why does God still blame us?^w For who is able to resist his will?”^{x 20}But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^y “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^z ‘Why did you make me like this?’ ”^{ha 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?^b

²²What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^c the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^{d 23}What if he did this to make the riches of his glory^e known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory^f—²⁴even us, whom he also called,^g not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?^h