9 ¹⁹ You will say, 'Then why does God blame a man? For who can resist his will?' 9 ^{20 [ Is.29.16, Is.45.9. ]} Who are you, sir, to answer God back? Can the pot speak to the potter and say, 'Why did you make me like this?'? 9 ^{21 [ Jr.18.6. ]} Surely the potter can do what he likes with the clay. Is he not free to make out of the same lump two vessels, one to be treasured, the other for common use?
9 ²² But what if God, desiring to exhibit Or: although he had the will to exhibit ... his retribution at work and to make his power known, tolerated very patiently those vessels which were objects of retribution due for destruction, 9 ²³ and did so in order to make known the full wealth of his splendour upon vessels which were objects of mercy, and which from the first had been prepared for this splendour?
9 ²⁴ Such vessels are we, whom he has called from among Gentiles as well as Jews, 9 ^{25 [ Hs.2.23. ]} as it says in the Book of Hosea: 'Those who were not my people I will call My People, and the unloved nation I will call My Beloved. 9 ^{26 [ Hs.1.10. ]} For in the very place where they were told "you are no people of mine", they shall be called Sons of the living God.' 9 ^{27 [ Is.10.22-23. ]} But Isaiah makes this proclamation about Israel: 'Though the Israelites be countless as the sands of the sea, only a remnant that shall be saved; 9 ²⁸ for the Lord's sentence on the land will be summary and final'; 9 ^{29 [ Is.1.9. ]} as also he said previously, 'If the Lord of Hosts had not left us the mere germ of a nation, we should have become like Sodom, and no better than Gomorrah.'