Romans 9:17

f. But Paul goes further, and explains the contrary phenomenon that of a man who does not and cannot receive mercy in the same way. λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή : it is on Scripture the burden of proof is laid here and at Romans 9:15. A Jew might answer the arguments Paul uses here if they were the Apostle's own; to Scripture he can make no reply; it must silence, even where it does not convince. τῷ φαραὼ : All men, and not those only who are the objects of His mercy, come within the scope of God's sovereignty. Pharaoh as well as Moses can be quoted to illustrate it. He was the open adversary of God, an avowed, implacable adversary; yet a Divine purpose was fulfilled in his life, and that purpose and nothing else is the explanation of his very being. εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐξήγειρά σε. The LXX in Exodus 9:16 read: καὶ ἕνεκεν τούτου διετηρήθης, the last word, answering to the Hebrew הֶֽעֱמַדְתִּיךָ, being used in the sense of “thou wast kept alive” the sense adopted by Dillmann for the Hebrew; probably Paul changed it intentionally to give the meaning, “for this reason I brought thee on the stage of history”: cf. Habakkuk 1:6; Zechariah 11:16, Jer. 27:41 (S. and H.). The purpose Pharaoh was designed to serve, and actually did serve, on this stage, was certainly not his own; as certainly it was God's. God's power was shown in the penal miracles by which Pharaoh and Egypt were visited, and his name is proclaimed to this day wherever the story of the Exodus is told.