¹⁴ What then shall we say?^(A) Is God unjust? Not at all!^{(B) 15} For he says to Moses,

¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.^{(D) 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.”^{[b](E) 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(F)

¹⁹ One of you will say to me:^(G) “Then why does God still blame us?^(H) For who is able to resist his will?”^{(I) 20} But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(J) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(K) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^{[c](L) 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?^(M)

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