EasyEnglish Bible 2018
Romans 9:18
18So we see this: God is kind to some people and he forgives them. But he causes some people, like Pharaoh, to turn against him. He chooses what he will do with each person.
Romans 9:18 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
- New International Version (NIV)Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
- English Standard Version (ESV)So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.
- New King James Version (NKJV)Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.
Context of Romans 9:18
16So then, it is God who decides these things. It is not because of what people want. It is not because of what people do. It is because God chooses to be kind. 17The Bible tells us what God said to Pharaoh: ‘This is why I caused you to be king of Egypt. My purpose was to show how powerful I am. As a result, people everywhere would know that I am great.’ So we see this: God is kind to some people and he forgives them. But he causes some people, like Pharaoh, to turn against him. He chooses what he will do with each person. 19One of you may say to me, ‘God always does what he wants to do. Nobody can change what God makes them do. So God should not say that people have done wrong things.’ 20But you are only human. You have no authority to speak against God like that. God has made you. A pot cannot speak against the person who made it! It cannot ask him, ‘Why did you make me like this?’
Read all of Romans 9Romans 9:18 word by word
ἄρα οὖν ὃν θέλει ἐλεεῖ, ὃν δὲ θέλει σκληρύνει.¶Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Romans 9:18
- Romans 9:15Think about this. God said to Moses, ‘I will be kind to whoever I choose to be kind to. I will feel sorry for whoever I choose to feel sorry for.’
- Romans 5:20God gave his Law to Moses to show more clearly that people were doing wrong things. But when people did more and more wrong things, God continued to be kind in more and more ways.
- Ephesians 1:6As a result, we praise him, because he is great and he has been so kind to us. He has given us so much because of his Son, whom he loves very much.
- Romans 1:24So God let those people do all the bad things that they wanted to do. God let those disgusting things rule their lives. As a result, they did bad things with each other's bodies. They did things that people should be ashamed to do.
- Romans 11:7So we can say this: Israel's people did not all find what they were looking for. Only those people that God had chosen received it. But the other people of Israel became unable to understand God's message.
- Exodus 4:21Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘When you return to Egypt you must do the signs. Do all the signs that I gave you the power to do. Do them in front of Pharaoh. But I will make Pharaoh angry and cruel. Because of this, he will not let the people go.
- Exodus 7:13But Pharaoh's mind was hard and he refused to listen to Moses and Aaron. That was what the Lord had said would happen, and it did!
- Deuteronomy 2:30But Sihon, the king of Heshbon, refused to let us travel through his country. He was too proud to agree with us. The Lord our God had caused him to be like that. He wanted to put King Sihon under your power and give his land to you. You still live in his land today.
- Joshua 11:20The Lord had caused the minds of those people to become hard. So they all decided to fight against the Israelites. The Lord wanted the Israelites to destroy those people completely, as he had commanded Moses.
- Isaiah 63:17Lord, why do you cause us to turn away from your ways? You make our minds become hard, so that we do not obey you. Please come back to help us, because we are your servants. We are the tribes that you have chosen for yourself!
- Matthew 13:14Long ago, the prophet Isaiah spoke a message from God about those people. Now it has become true. God said: “You will listen and listen. But you will not understand. You will look and look. But you will not see anything.
- Acts 28:26“Go and say to this people, ‘You will listen and listen. But you will not understand. You will look and look. But you will not see anything.’
- 2 Thessalonians 2:10He will do all kinds of bad things that deceive people. The people that he deceives are people that God will destroy. Those people believe false things because they have refused to accept God's true message. If they had loved that true message, God would have saved them.
Commentaries on Romans 9:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will - This is the apostle's conclusion from the facts already laid down: that God, according to his own will and wisdom, in perfect righteousness, bestows mercy; that is to say, his blessings upon one part of mankind, (the Jews of old, and the Gentiles of the present time), while he suffers another part (the Egyptians of old, and the Jews of the present day) to go on in the abuse of his goodness and forbearance…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 14-24Verses 14-24 Whatever God does, must be just. Wherein the holy, happy people of God differ from others, God's grace alone makes them differ. In this preventing, effectual, distinguishing grace, he acts as a benefactor, whose grace is his own. None have deserved it; so that those who are saved, must thank God only; and those who perish, must blame themselves only, Hos 13:9. God is bound no further than he has been pleased to bind himself by his own…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 18He hardens whom He wants to harden: Pharaoh refused to let Israel leave because his heart became hard. A hard heart describes stubborn resistance to God. It means refusing to listen or change, even after seeing clear signs of God’s power. The book of Exodus says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 9:12). It also says that Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15). Together, these statements show that Pharaoh was responsible for his actions, even…Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1818. Therefore hath he--"So then he hath." The result then is that He hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth--by judicially abandoning them to the hardening influence of sin itself (Psa 81:11, 12; Ro 1:24, 26, 28; He 3:8, 13), and of the surrounding incentives to it (Mt 24:12; 1Co 15:38; 2Th 2:17). Second objection to the doctrine of Divine Sovereignty:Read the comment
- Calvin’s Commentaries · v. 1818. To whom he wills then he showeth mercy, etc. Here follows the conclusion of both parts; which can by no means be understood as being the language of any other but of the Apostle; for he immediately addresses an opponent, and adduces what might have been objected by an opposite party. There is therefore no doubt but that Paul, as we have already reminded you, speaks these things in his own person, namely, that God, according to his own will, favors…Read the comment
Topics related to Romans 9:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Romans 9
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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