Romanos 9:17

‘For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose (for unto this thing) did I raise you up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be published abroad in all the earth”.'

This overall sovereignty of God can be seen as illustrated from the life of Pharaoh, where God says to Pharaoh that He had ‘raised him up' in order that He might show His power in the way He dealt with him, and might thereby reveal to all the earth His mighty power over a king who claimed to be a powerful god (Éxodo 9:16; Éxodo 15:14 ff). Pharaoh could have no justifiable complaint. He had resisted God from the start. Thus he was only receiving his due reward. In this case God, instead of exercising His prerogative of mercy, chose to harden an already hardened Pharaoh, and this was in order that the world might learn the truth about Him. So even this had a positive moral purpose. For Paul's alteration of the OT text to ‘raise you up' underlines the fact that even here God's purpose was one of mercy, not on Pharaoh, but on all those who would hear and fear. God had raised up Pharaoh (and hardened his heart - Romanos 9:18) as a witness to the nations. In other words, God's judgment on Pharaoh would result in His word going out to the nations, just as in Paul's day the hardening of Israel was to result similarly in the word of God's power going out as a witness to the nations (Romanos 11:11; Romanos 11:15). As in Pharaoh's case, the hardening of Israel had a positive purpose. Indeed his use of the verb ‘raised you up' may also have been intended by Paul to remind his readers of an even greater occasion when God ‘raised up' (1 Corintios 6:14) Someone, His own Son, in order to demonstrate His power (Romanos 1:4), but if so the implication is not drawn out.

The Hebrew text in Éxodo 9:16 would appear to be the basis for Paul's citation, for it reads ‘for this reason I have caused you to stand, for to show you My power, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth'. Paul's is thus a somewhat loose paraphrase with ‘raised up' being introduced by Paul.

‘The Scripture says.' Here ‘the Scripture' is used as a synonym for God, indicating that the Scriptures were indeed seen as ‘the voice of God', and were seen as parallel with God's own word.