17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18 Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and He hardens whom He wills.
19 You will then say to me, “Why does He yet find fault? For who can resist His will?”
20 Rather, O man, who are you to answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?”
21 Does the potter not have power over the clay to make from the same lump one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He previously prepared for glory,