14 Therefore I will again do an amazing thing for these people—an absolutely extraordinary deed. Wise men will have nothing to say, the sages will have no explanations.” 15 Those who try to hide their plans from the Lord are as good as dead, who do their work in secret and boast, “Who sees us? Who knows what we’re doing?” 16 Your thinking is perverse! Should the potter be regarded as clay? Should the thing made say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? Or should the pottery say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”? 17 In just a very short time Lebanon will turn into an orchard, and the orchard will be considered a forest. 18 At that time the deaf will be able to hear words read from a scroll, and the eyes of the blind will be able to see through deep darkness.

18 So then, God has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who has ever resisted his will?” 20 But who indeed are you—a mere human being—to talk back to God? Does what is molded say to the molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use? 22 But what if God, willing to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the objects of wrath prepared for destruction?