17. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up—to demonstrate My power in you, so My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18. So then He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
19. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”
20. But who in the world are you, O man, who talks back to God? Will what is formed say to the one who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
21. Does the potter have no right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for common use?
22. Now what if God, willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath designed for destruction?
23. And what if He did so to make known the riches of His glory on vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory?