16. Therefore, it is not based on those who choose, nor on those who excel, but on God who takes pity.
17. For Scripture says to the Pharaoh: "I have raised you up for this purpose, so that I may reveal my power by you, and so that my name may be announced to all the earth."
18. Therefore, he takes pity on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
19. And so, you would say to me: "Then why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?"
20. O man, who are you to question God? How can the thing that has been formed say to the One who formed him: "Why have you made me this way?"
21. And does not the potter have the authority over the clay to make, from the same material, indeed, one vessel unto honor, yet truly another unto disgrace?
22. What if God, wanting to reveal his wrath and to make his power known, endured, with much patience, vessels deserving wrath, fit to be destroyed,
23. so that he might reveal the wealth of his glory, within these vessels of mercy, which he has prepared unto glory?
24. And so it is with those of us whom he has also called, not only from among the Jews, but even from among the Gentiles,
25. just as he says in Hosea: "I will call those who were not my people, 'my people,' and she who was not beloved, 'beloved,' and she who had not obtained mercy, 'one who has obtained mercy.'
26. And this shall be: in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they shall be called the sons of the living God."