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.”^{[a](A) 18} Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(B)

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?^(A)

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