God's Wrath and Mercy

19 Yoʋ will say to me then, “[fn]Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 On the contrary, O man, who are yoʋ to answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why did yoʋ make me like this?” 21 Does the potter not have a right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, although willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy that he has prepared in advance for glory, 24 namely us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As he says in Hosea,

“Those who were ‘not my people’ I will call ‘my people,’

and those who were ‘not beloved’ I will call ‘beloved.’

26 And in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’

there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel,

“Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea,

only the remnant will be saved.

28 For the Lord will [fn]settle the matter swiftly and justly;

his sentence will be executed upon the earth without delay.”

29 And just as Isaiah foretold,

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us any descendants,

we would have been like Sodom

and become like Gomorrah.”