Bible Strands
Romans 9:17
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul, writing to the Roman church, cites God's direct address to Pharaoh as proof-text for his argument that God's mercy and hardening are sovereign acts (9:16, 18).
The words — εἰς (eis), literally "into/toward," here functions as a purposive preposition ("for the purpose of"), framing Pharaoh's existence as instrumentally directed toward divine display rather than merely permitted.
The thread — The quotation is drawn from Exodus 9:16; Exodus 10:1 adds the hardening of Pharaoh's heart as the mechanism; Proverbs 16:4 generalizes the principle to all wicked persons.
Why it lands — It removes the reader from the role of moral arbiter and places them in the position of a witness to a purpose they did not design, asking whether they can hold that tension without either softening God's sovereignty or excusing the one who was hardened.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
Cross-references
- Exodus 9:16 But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power to you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.
- Proverbs 16:4 The LORD has made everything for His purpose—even the wicked for the day of disaster.
- Exodus 10:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials, that I may perform these miraculous signs of Mine among them,
- Exodus 14:17 And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. Then I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army and chariots and horsemen.
- Exodus 15:14 The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.
- Joshua 9:9 “Your servants have come from a very distant land,” they replied, “because of the fame of the LORD your God. For we have heard the reports about Him: all that He did in Egypt,
- 1 Samuel 2:7 The LORD sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.
- Esther 4:14 For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows if perhaps you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
- Isaiah 37:20 And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”
- Isaiah 45:1 This is what the LORD says to Cyrus His anointed, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him, to disarm kings, to open the doors before him, so that the gates will not be shut: