¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.^(A)

²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God?^(A) “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,^(B) ‘Why did you make me like this?’”^[a](C)

²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience^(A) the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction?^(B)