Romans 9:16-33

16So then, it does not depend on the person who 1wants it nor the one who 23runs, but on 4God who has mercy. 17For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “5For this very reason I raised you up, in order to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed 6throughout the earth.” 18So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He 7hardens whom He desires.

198You will say to me then, “9Why does He still find fault? For 10who has resisted His will?” 20On the contrary, who are you, 1112you foolish person, who 13answers back to God? 14The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? 21Or does the potter not have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one object 15for honorable use, and another 16for common use? 2217What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with great 18patience objects of wrath 19prepared for destruction? 23And He did so to make known 20the riches of His glory upon 21objects of mercy, which He 22prepared beforehand for glory, 24namely us, whom He also 23called, 24not only from among Jews, but also from among Gentiles, 25as He also says in Hosea: “25I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’ And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”26“26And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’ There they shall be called sons of 27the living God.”

27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “28Though the number of the sons of Israel may be 29like the sand of the sea, only 30the remnant will be saved; 2831for the Lord will execute His word on the earth, 32thoroughly and 33quickly.” 29And just as Isaiah foretold: “34If 35the Lord 36of armies had not left us 3738descendants, 39We would have become like Sodom, and would have 40been like Gomorrah.”

3041What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, but 42the righteousness that is 43by faith; 31however, Israel, 44pursuing a law of righteousness, did not 45arrive at that law. 32Why? Because they did not pursue it 46by faith, but as though they could 47by works. They stumbled over 48the stumbling stone, 33just as it is written: “49Behold, I am laying in Zion 50a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, 51And the one who believes in Him 52will not be 53put to shame.”