Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 9:18
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will [have mercy,] and whom he will he hardeneth.
18. whom he will ] The emphasis is of course on these words, in each clause: to us, the only account of the differences of His action is His Will. The following verses prove beyond fair question that St Paul means fully to enforce this truth, intensely trying as it is to the human heart. He lays it down without mitigation or counterpoise: not that there is no mitigation; but mitigation is far from his purpose here. The deepest relief to thought in the matter is just this, that this sovereign and unaccountable will is His Will; the Will of the living God, the Father of our Lord. But it is none the less sovereign; and that is the point here. Observe that the Gr. pronoun rendered “ whom ” throughout this verse is singular. The application is to individuals.
hardeneth ] Judicially; by “ giving up to the heart’s lusts.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Therefore hath he mercy … – This is a conclusion stated by the apostle as the result of all the argument.
Whom he will he hardeneth – This is not stated in what the Scripture said to Pharaoh, but is a conclusion to which the apostle had arrived, in view of the case of Pharaoh. The word hardeneth means only to harden in the manner specified in the case of Pharaoh. It does not mean to exert a positive influence, but to leave a sinner to his own course, and to place him in circumstances where the character will be more and more developed; see the note at Joh 12:40. It implies, however, an act of sovereignty on the part of God in thus leaving him to his chosen course, and in not putting forth that influence by which he could be saved from death. Why this is, the apostle does not state. We should, however, not dispute a fact everywhere prevalent; and should have sufficient confidence in God to believe that it is in accordance with infinite wisdom and rectitude.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 18. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will] This is the apostle’s conclusion from the facts already laid down: that God, according to his own will and wisdom, in perfect righteousness, bestows mercy; that is to say, his blessings upon one part of mankind, (the Jews of old, and the Gentiles of the present time,) while he suffers another part (the Egyptians of old, and the Jews of the present day) to go on in the abuse of his goodness and forbearance, hardening themselves in sin, till he brings upon them a most just and exemplary punishment, unless this be prevented by their deep repentance and general return to God through Jesus the promised, the real Messiah.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This verse is a short repetition of the foregoing argument.
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy: see Rom 9:15, and the notes there.
And whom he will he hardeneth; i.e. in a judicial way. Besides natural hardness, which is in all men, and is hereditary to them; and habitual hardness, which is contracted by a custom in sin, as a path is hardened by the continual trampling of passengers; there is judicial or judiciary hardness, which is inflicted by God as a punishment. Men harden their own hearts sinfully, (so it is thrice said of Pharaoh in Exodus, that he hardened his own heart, Exo 8:15,32; 9:34), and then God hardens their hearts judicially: so it is often said of God in Exodus, that he hardened Pharaohs heart, Exo 7:13; Exo 9:12; 10:1,20,27; 14:8. God is not said properly to harden the hearts of men; i.e. he doth not make their soft hearts hard, nor doth he put hardness into the hearts of men, (as our adversaries slanderously report us to affirm), nor doth he barely permit or suffer them to be hardened (which is the opinion of the papists about this matter); but two ways may he be said to harden sinners:
1. By forsaking them, and not softening their hearts: as darkness follows upon the suns withdrawing of his light, so doth hardness upon Gods withholding his softening influence.
2. By punishing them; he inflicts further hardness, as a punishment of former hardness; and this he infuseth not, but it is effected either:
a) By Satan, to whom hardened sinners are delivered up; or,
b) By themselves, they being given over to their own hearts lusts; or,
c) By Gods word and works, which accidentally harden the hearts of men, as might be shown. {see Rom 9:19}
See Poole on “Rom 9:19“.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. Therefore hath he“Sothen he hath.” The result then is that He hath
mercy on whom he will havemercy, and whom he will he hardenethby judicially abandoningthem to the hardening influence of sin itself (Psa 81:11;Psa 81:12; Rom 1:24;Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28;Heb 3:8; Heb 3:13),and of the surrounding incentives to it (Mat 24:12;1Co 15:38; 2Th 2:17).
Second objection to thedoctrine of Divine Sovereignty:
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will,…. These are the express words of the former testimony: it follows,
and whom he will he hardeneth; which is the just and natural consequence of what is contained in the latter; for if God could, or he did, without any injustice, raise up Pharaoh, and harden his heart against him and his people, that he might rise up against him and destroy him by his power for his own glory, then he may harden any other person, and even whom he will: now this hardening of men’s hearts may be understood in perfect agreement with the justice and holiness of God: men first harden their own hearts by sinning, as Pharaoh did; what God does, is by leaving them to the hardness of their hearts, denying them that grace which only can soften them, and which he is not obliged to give, and therefore does them no injustice in withholding it from them; by sending them both mercies and judgments, which through the corruption of their hearts, are the means of the greater hardening of them; so judgments in the case of Pharaoh, and mercies in the case of others; see Isa 6:10; by delivering them up into the hands of Satan, and to their own lusts, which they themselves approve of; and by giving them up to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart, as a just punishment for their impieties.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He hardeneth (). Pharaoh hardened his own heart also (Exod 8:15; Exod 8:32; Exod 9:34), but God gives men up also (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28). This late word is used by the Greek physicians Galen and Hippocrates. See on Ac 19:9. Only here in Paul.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
He will [] . In a decretory sense. See on Mt 1:19.
Hardeneth [] . Only here by Paul. See on hard, Mt 25:24; Jude 1:14; Jas 3:4. Three words are used in the Hebrew to describe the hardening of Pharaoh ‘s heart. The one which occurs most frequently, properly means to be strong, and therefore represents the hardness as foolhardiness, infatuated insensibility to danger. See Exodus 14. The word is used in its positive sense, hardens, not merely permits to become hard. In Exodus the hardening is represented as self – produced (Exo 15:32; Exo 9:34), and as produced by God (Exo 4:21; Exo 7:3; Exo 9:12; Exo 10:20, 27; Exo 11:10). Paul here chooses the latter representation.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy,” (ara oun hon thelei eleei) “So then he has or h Ids mercy (on, to, toward) whom he divinely wills;” From the example of Jacob it appears that God bestows mercy and favors on what nation he wills. This demonstrates his free volition, or will, based on his knowledge, holiness, goodness and justice.
2) “And whom he will be hardeneth,” (hon dethelei sklerunei) “yet, whom he divinely wills, he hardens;- Or allows them the opportunity to harden themselves, in giving them life, health, and necessities of life, as he causeth the sun to shine and sendeth the rain upon the just and the unjust, Act 17:28; Mat 5:45; Act 14:16-17. The hardening process may be observed in the example of the rich barn builder, and men of his disposition today, and in the specific life of Belshazzar. Luk 12:16-21; Dan 5:18-23. In some places it is said Pharaoh hardened his heart, in others that God hardened his heart. There is no actual contradiction between the two statements, because God’s Word is “true from the beginning”; the term “harden” is used in the primary and secondary senses. It appear that God hardens mens heart only in the sense that he sustains them with life in their choices as men turn away from him again and again in procrastination of obedience to his commands and in obstinate enmity and rebellion against his calls, Exo 4:21. Truth and light rejected hardens the heart, Pro 29:1, Rom 1:28.
THE MEANING OF A HARDENED HEART
In some places it is said that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, and in others that God has hardened it. Both are strictly correct. The rejection of the truth and the abuse of our privileges ever tend to harden the heart. This is a spiritual law as certain in its operation as the law of gravitation. As soon as Pharaoh saw a respite from his afflictions, his heart was hardened. And how often do men make all kinds of promises, but no sooner does relief come than we fall back again into a state worse than the first. “The sun,” says Theodoret, “by force of its heat, moistens the wax and dries the clay, softening the one and hardening the other; and as this produces opposite effects by the same power, so through thy long-suffering of God, which reaches to all, some receive good and others evil; some are softened and others hardened.
-Sexton
“Pharaoh,” says Fry, “had not, in immediate consequence of his hardness, any more sinfulness in his heart than he had previously; but he dared to do more.” In selecting the word “hardens” the apostle suggests a parallel between Pharaoh and the Israelites. There was something ominously Pharaonic in the spirit of the unbelieving Jews.
-J. Morison
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
18. To whom he wills then he showeth mercy, etc. Here follows the conclusion of both parts; which can by no means be understood as being the language of any other but of the Apostle; for he immediately addresses an opponent, and adduces what might have been objected by an opposite party. There is therefore no doubt but that Paul, as we have already reminded you, speaks these things in his own person, namely, that God, according to his own will, favors with mercy them whom he pleases, and unsheathes the severity of his judgment against whomsoever it seemeth him good. That our mind may be satisfied with the difference which exists between the elect and the reprobate, and may not inquire for any cause higher than the divine will, his purpose was to convince us of this — that it seems good to God to illuminate some that they may be saved, and to blind others that they may perish: for we ought particularly to notice these words, to whom he wills, and, whom he wills: beyond this he allows us not to proceed.
But the word hardens, when applied to God in Scripture, means not only permission, (as some washy moderators would have it,) but also the operation of the wrath of God: for all those external things, which lead to the blinding of the reprobate, are the instruments of his wrath; and Satan himself, who works inwardly with great power, is so far his minister, that he acts not, but by his command. (301) Then that frivolous evasion, which the schoolmen have recourse to respecting foreknowledge, falls to the ground: for Paul teaches us, that the ruin of the wicked is not only foreseen by the Lord, but also ordained by his counsel and his will; and Solomon teaches as the same thing, — that not only the destruction of the wicked is foreknown, but that the wicked themselves have been created for this very end — that they may perish. (Pro 16:4.)
(301) Much has been unnecessarily written on this subject of hardening. Pharaoh is several times said to have hardened his own heart, and God is said also several times to have hardened him too. The Scripture in many instances makes no minute distinctions, for these may be easily gathered from the general tenor of its teaching. God is in his nature holy, and therefore hardening as his act cannot be sinful: and as he is holy, he hates sin and punishes it; and for this purpose he employs wicked men, and even Satan himself, as in the case of Ahab. As a punishment, he affords occasions and opportunities to the obstinate even to increase their sins, and thus in an indirect way hardens them in their rebellion and resistance to his will; and this was exactly the case with Pharaoh. This, as [ Calvin ] says, was the operation or working of his wrath. The history of Pharaoh is a sufficient explanation of what is said here. He was a cruel tyrant and oppressor; and God in his first message to Moses said, “I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.” God might indeed have softened his heart and disposed him to allow them to depart: but it pleased him to act otherwise, and to manifest his power and his greatness in another way: so that “whom he wills, he favours, and whom he wills, he hardens;” and for reasons known only to himself.
Reference is at the end of this section made to Pro 16:4. The creation mentioned can be understood in no other sense than the continued exercise of divine power in bringing into existence human beings in their present fallen state. But “creation” is not the word used, nor is the passage correctly rendered. It is not ברא nor עשה, but פעל; and it is not a verb but a substantive. Literally rendered the passage is the following —
Every work of Jehovah is for its (or, his) purpose, And even the wicked is for the day of calamity.
The Rev. [ G. Holden ] is very indignant that this text has been applied to support the doctrine of reprobation. Be it, that it has been misapplied; yet the doctrine does not thereby fall to the ground. If Paul does not maintain it in this chapter and in other passages, we must hold that words have no meaning. The history of God’s providence is an obvious confirmation of the same awful truth. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Summary conclusion from the above.
He hardeneth.The doctrine of the divine sovereignty is here expressed in its most trenchant and logical form. In Exo. 8:32; Exo. 9:34; Exo. 13:15, &c., the hardening of Pharaohs heart is attributed to his own act. That act may, however, be regarded as a part of the design of Providence. Gods decrees include human free-will, without destroying it. But how they do this we cannot say.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Hardeneth It is surprising how anxiously the very commentators who teach that from all eternity God decreed the sin and hardening of Pharaoh endeavour to soften this word, and maintain that the hardening is by no direct act of God, but by indirect effect. Surely, if God may predestinate Pharaoh’s hardness, then he may as well produce it by a direct touch of his hand. A true view, in its proper place, of God’s clearness from the sin of the creature enables us to assert, in its proper place, the full force of the divine sentence upon the sinner. And when we consider that this hardening, being the opposite of showing mercy, is a judicial act, performed upon one already past probation, it impeaches not God’s perfect rectitude to suppose that he executes it, according to the words, by direct act. It may have been God’s turning the key of mercy’s door upon him who had, without God’s decree or concurrence, forever closed it against himself. It may have been confirmatorily glazing with God’s own finger the surface of that heart already callous by its own act. This is just as righteous as it is for God to bar the gates of hell upon the finally damned, or for Jesus to say, Depart, ye cursed, etc.
The Jew now understands of Paul that the hardened Pharaoh is but a type of his own hardening self. The condemnation of Israel, for whom Moses prayed in vain, the overthrow of Pharaoh, whom Moses warned in vain, are figures of his own downfall, for whom Paul weeps in vain. And all because Supreme Righteousness will have its own way. It next follows that,
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘So then he has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will be hardens.’
Paul assumes that his readers will connect Pharaoh’s being raised up to glorify God with his hardening of heart, a condition expressed a number of times in Exodus (e.g. Exo 7:3; Exo 9:12; Exo 14:4; Exo 14:17). He thus concludes by saying ‘He (God) has mercy on whom He will and whom He will He hardens’, particularly having Pharaoh’s behaviour in mind, although later applying the term ‘harden’ to Israel in Rom 11:7; Rom 11:25 demonstrating that God treats them like He treated Pharaoh. God is thus depicted as sovereign in all His dealings with men, and as One Who cannot be called to account for how He behaves towards men, although one reason why this is so is that none of them are deserving. Thus all men are seen as undeserving, and as therefore having no rights apart from that of judgment.
Here we cannot avoid the fact that Paul unquestionably puts the onus on God both for showing mercy and for hardening men’s hearts, and that eternal salvation and eternal destruction are in mind is made evident by his later illustration in Rom 9:22-23. He thus does not shy away from indicating God’s responsibility for the fate of all men both positively and negatively. And as his aim in the passage is to demonstrate that God acts unilaterally we cannot avoid recognising that God is primarily sovereign over all, even over men’s decisions. Indeed this is confirmed in the following verses where Paul clearly acknowledges that he cannot explain it, and then asserts the facts even more emphatically. On the other hand we must certainly recognise that God’s actions do work in parallel with man’s behaviour. God’s mercy works in parallel with the exercising of faith by the objects of His mercy, and His mercy withheld works in parallel with the objects of His wrath sinning and refusing to believe (Rom 9:30 to Rom 10:17). But the hardening of men by God necessarily follows the fact that they themselves are sinful, and is not the cause of it, for they are sinful from the womb (Psa 58:3).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Rom 9:18. Therefore hath he mercy, &c. “Therefore, that his name and power may be made known, and taken notice of in all the earth, he is kind and bountiful to one nation, and suffers another to go on obstinately in their opposition to him; that his taking them off by some signal calamity, and the ruin brought on them by the visible hand of his providence, may be seen and acknowledged to be an effect of their standing out against him; as in the case of Pharaoh. For this end, he is bountiful to whom he will be bountiful, and whom he will he permits to make such an use of his forbearance towards them, as to persist obdurately in their provocation of him, and draw on themselves exemplary destruction.” See Locke, Whitby, and particularly the note on Exo 9:34-35.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Rom 9:18 . Result from Rom 9:15-17 .
] Opposite of , not merely negative like (Bengel), but positive: He hardens him, makes him thereby incapable of being a (Rom 9:23 ). Such an one becomes (Plato, Crat . p. 407 D), . (Plato, Locr . p. 104 C), in a moral respect. Comp. Act 19:9 ; Heb 3:8 ; Heb 3:13 ; Heb 3:15 ; Heb 4:7 ; , Mat 19:8 ; Mar 16:14 ; Rom 2:5 ; see also Soph. Aj . 1340, Trach . 1250; Lobeck, ad Aj . p. 384; from the O. T., Umbreit, d. Snde , p. 113 ff. Rom 9:19 ff. prove that all warping or alteration of this sense of the word is erroneous; that the suggestion, e.g ., in Origen and several Fathers, in Grotius, Koppe, Flatt, Klee, Maier, and others, that only the divine permission is intended (comp. Melancthon: “Indurat, i. e. sinit esse durum , nec convertit eum”), is erroneous; and equally erroneous is the interpretation duriter tractat (Carpzov, Semler, Cramer, Ernesti, Schulthess, Exeg. Forsch . II. p. 136; comp. Beck, p. 75 f.), which is contrary to the signification of the word (also in the LXX. Job 39:16 ). Evidence to the same effect is supplied by the twofold representation given of the hardening of Pharaoh in Exodus, where it appears partly as self-produced (Exo 8:15 ; Exo 8:32 , Exo 9:34 ; comp. 1Sa 6:6 ), partly as effected by God (Rom 4:21 , Rom 7:3 , Rom 9:12 , Rom 10:20-21 , Rom 11:10 ). Of these two ways of regarding the matter, however, Paul, suitably to his object, has expressly adopted the latter; Pharaoh hardened by God is to him the type of all who obstinately withstand the divine counsel of salvation, as Israel does. In opposition to Beck’s evasive expedients, see Lamping. On the hardening itself Olshausen remarks: (1) That it presupposes already the beginnings of evil. But this is at variance with and , Rom 9:21 . (2) That it is not an aggravation of sin, but a means of preventing its aggravation. But Pharaoh’s history is against this. (3) That the total hardening is an expression of simple penal justice, when sin has become sin against the Holy Ghost. But in that case there could be no mention of a . The clear and simple sense of the apostle is, that it depends on the free determination of God’s will whether to bless with His saving mercy, or, on the other hand, to put into that spiritual condition, in which a man can be no object of His saving mercy (but rather of His only). Accordingly, the will of God is here the absolute will, which is only in the a will of grace, and not also in the (in opposition to Th. Schott). Of the style and manner in which the older dogmatic interpreters have here introduced qualifying clauses in the interests of opposition to absolute predestination, the development of the matter by Calovius may serve as an example. He maintains, that when it is said that God hardens, this is not to be taken or effective , but (1) , propter permissionem ; (2) , propter occasionem , quam ex iis, quae Deus agit, sumunt reprobi; (3) , ob desertionem , quod gratia sua deserat reprobos; (4) , ob traditionem in sensum reprobum et in ulteriorem Satanae potestatem. But Philippi’s suggestion of the immanent law which the divine freedom carries within itself, according to which God will have mercy upon him who acknowledges His right to have mercy on whom He will, and to harden whom He will; and will harden him who denies to Him this right, will only then come into consideration by the side of what Paul here says, when (see remarks after Rom 9:33 ) we are in a position to judge of the relation of our passage and the connection that follows it to the moral self-determination of man, which the apostle teaches elsewhere; seeing that no further guiding hint is here given by Paul, and, moreover, that immanent law of the divine freedom, as Philippi himself frankly recognises, is not at all here expressed. For now the apostle has been most sedulously and exclusively urging nothing but the complete independence of the divine willing in and , which the Form. Conc . p. 821 does not duly attend to, when it maintains that Paul desired to represent the hardening of Pharaoh as an example of divine penal justice . Not “ut eo ipso Dei justitiam declararet,” has Paul adduced this example, although it falls historically under this point of view, but as a proof of the completely free self-determination of God to harden whom He will . Accordingly, the hardening here appears by no means, as has been lately read between the lines, “ as a consequence of preceding conceited self-righteousness ” (Tholuck), or “ such as the man himself has willed it ” (Th. Schott), or conditioned by the divine standard of holiness confronting human sin (Weiss), or with an obvious presupposition of human self-determination (Beyschlag). Elsewhere the hardening may be adjudged as a punishment by God (Isa 6:9 ff.; Psa 69:28 ; see Umbreit, p. 310 f.), but not so here. The will of God, which in truth can be no arbitrary pleasure, is no doubt holy and just; but it is not here apprehended and set forth under this point of view and from this side , but in reference to its independence of all human assistance , consequently in accordance with its alsolute aseitas , which is to be retained in its clear precision and without any qualifying clause to the words , and must not be obscured by ideas of mediate agency that are here foreign.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy , and whom he will he hardeneth.
Ver. 18. Therefore ] God being a free agent, cannot be unjust; he is bound to none.
Whom he will, he hardeneth ] There is a threefold hardness of the heart: 1. Natural and hereditary, whereby all men are by nature not only averse from, but also adverse to, the motions of grace; this is called a neck possessed with an iron sinew, Isa 48:4 ; Isa 2:1-22 . Actual, adventitious, voluntary; which is, when, by often choking good motions, a man hath quit his heart of them; being arrived at that dead and dedolent disposition, Eph 4:18 , past feeling, and ripe for destruction. This is called a brow of brass in the above named text, Isa 48:4 ; Isa 3:1-26 . Judiciary, penal hardness; happens when God, for a punishment of the former, withholds his graces, and delivers a man up to Satan to be further hardened, and to his own heart’s lusts, which is worse. The incestuous person was delivered up to Satan, and yet repented; but he that is delivered up to his own heart, to a reprobate mind, cannot be renewed by repentance; but is in the ready road to that unpardonable sin. And this last is here meant.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18 .] Therefore He hath mercy on whom He will (ref. to Rom 9:15 , where see note), and whom He will, He hardeneth .
The frequent recurrence of the expression in the history of Pharaoh should have kept Commentators (Carpzov, Ernesti, al., and of Lexicographers, Wahl and Bretschneider) from attempting to give to the sense of ‘ treating hardly ,’ against which the next verse would be decisive, if there were no other reason for rejecting it. But it is very doubtful whether the word can ever bear the meaning. The only passage which appears to justify it (for in 2Ch 10:4 it clearly has the import of hardening, making severe ) is Job 39:16 , where ( A [78] ) the LXX version of the Heb. , is supposed to mean, ‘ treats her offspring hardly .’ But the LXX by this compound seem to have intended, ‘ casts off her offspring in her hardness ;’ the E. V. has, ‘She is hardened against her young ones.’
[78] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century . The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are: A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr 1 ; B (cited as 2 ), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; C a (cited as 3a ) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1 , it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that C a altered it to that which is found in our text; C b (cited as 3b ) lived about the same time as C a , i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here 6 .
Whatever difficulty there lies in this assertion, that God hardeneth whom He will, lies also in the daily course of His Providence , in which we see this hardening process going on in the case of the prosperous ungodly man. The fact is patent, whether declared by revelation or read in history: but to the solution of it, and its reconciliation with the equally certain fact of human responsibility, we shall never attain in this imperfect state, however we may strive to do so by subtle refinements and distinctions. The following is the admirable advice of Augustine (ad Sixtum, Ep. 194:6. 23, vol. ii. p. 882), from whom in this case it comes with double weight: “Satis sit interim Christiano ex fide adhuc viventi, et nondum cernenti quod perfectum est, sed ex parte scienti, nosse vel credere quod neminem Deus liberet nisi gratuit misericordi per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, et neminem damnet nisi quissim veritate per eundem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Cur autem illum potius quam ilium liberet aut non liberet, scrutetur qui potest judiciorum ejus tam magnum profundum, verumtamen caveat prcipitium.”
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Rom 9:18 . From the two instances just quoted Paul draws the comprehensive conclusion: So then on whom He will He has mercy, and whom He will He hardens. The whole emphasis is on . The two modes in which God acts upon man are showing mercy and hardening, and it depends upon God’s will in which of these two modes He actually does act. The word is borrowed from the history of Pharaoh, Exo 7:3 ; Exo 7:22 ; Exo 8:19 ; Exo 9:12 ; Exo 14:17 . What precisely the hardening means, and in what relation God’s hardening of Pharaoh’s heart stood to Pharaoh’s own hardening of it against God, are not unimportant questions, but they are questions which Paul does not here raise. He has one aim always in view here to show that man has no claim as of right against God; and he finds a decisive proof of this (at least for a Jew) in the opposite examples of Moses and Pharaoh, interpreted as these are by unmistakable words of God Himself. It was through God, in the last resort, that Moses and Pharaoh were what they were, signal instances of the Divine mercy and the Divine wrath.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
hardeneth. See Act 19:9. Compare Exo 4:21.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
18.] Therefore He hath mercy on whom He will (ref. to Rom 9:15, where see note), and whom He will, He hardeneth.
The frequent recurrence of the expression in the history of Pharaoh should have kept Commentators (Carpzov, Ernesti, al., and of Lexicographers, Wahl and Bretschneider) from attempting to give to the sense of treating hardly, against which the next verse would be decisive, if there were no other reason for rejecting it. But it is very doubtful whether the word can ever bear the meaning. The only passage which appears to justify it (for in 2Ch 10:4 it clearly has the import of hardening, making severe) is Job 39:16, where ( A[78]) the LXX version of the Heb. , is supposed to mean, treats her offspring hardly. But the LXX by this compound seem to have intended, casts off her offspring in her hardness; the E. V. has, She is hardened against her young ones.
[78] The CODEX SINAITICUS. Procured by Tischendorf, in 1859, from the Monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai. The Codex Frederico-Augustanus (now at Leipsic), obtained in 1844 from the same monastery, is a portion of the same copy of the Greek Bible, the 148 leaves of which, containing the entire New Testament, the Ep. of Barnabas, parts of Hermas, and 199 more leaves of the Septuagint, have now been edited by the discoverer. A magnificent edition prepared at the expense of the Emperor of Russia appeared in January, 1863, and a smaller edition containing the N.T. &c., has been published by Dr. Tischendorf. The MS. has four columns on a page, and has been altered by several different correctors, one or more of whom Tischendorf considers to have lived in the sixth century. The work of the original scribe has been examined, not only by Tischendorf, but by Tregelles and other competent judges, and is by them assigned to the fourth century. The internal character of the text agrees with the external, as the student may judge for himself from the readings given in the digest. The principal correctors as distinguished by Tischendorf are:-A, of the same age with the MS. itself, probably the corrector who revised the book, before it left the hands of the scribe, denoted therefore by us -corr1; B (cited as 2), who in the first page of Matt. began inserting breathings, accents, &c., but did not carry out his design, and touched only a few later passages; Ca (cited as 3a) has corrected very largely throughout the book. Wherever in our digest a reading is cited as found in 1, it is to be understood, if no further statement is given, that Ca altered it to that which is found in our text; Cb (cited as 3b) lived about the same time as Ca, i.e. some centuries later than the original scribe. These are all that we need notice here6.
Whatever difficulty there lies in this assertion, that God hardeneth whom He will, lies also in the daily course of His Providence, in which we see this hardening process going on in the case of the prosperous ungodly man. The fact is patent, whether declared by revelation or read in history: but to the solution of it, and its reconciliation with the equally certain fact of human responsibility, we shall never attain in this imperfect state, however we may strive to do so by subtle refinements and distinctions. The following is the admirable advice of Augustine (ad Sixtum, Ep. 194:6. 23, vol. ii. p. 882), from whom in this case it comes with double weight: Satis sit interim Christiano ex fide adhuc viventi, et nondum cernenti quod perfectum est, sed ex parte scienti, nosse vel credere quod neminem Deus liberet nisi gratuit misericordi per Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, et neminem damnet nisi quissim veritate per eundem Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum. Cur autem illum potius quam ilium liberet aut non liberet, scrutetur qui potest judiciorum ejus tam magnum profundum,-verumtamen caveat prcipitium.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Rom 9:18. ) whom He will. Moreover, as regards the question, to whom God wills to show mercy, and whom He wills to harden; Paul shows that in other passages.-, has mercy) as for example on Moses.-, hardens) as He did Pharaoh. He uses, hardens, for, has not mercy, by metonymy of [substituting, for the antecedent,] the consequent, although not to have mercy has a somewhat harsher meaning: so, is sanctified, for, is not unclean, 1Co 7:14; and, you rescued from, [], instead of you did not deliver up. Jos 22:31.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 9:18
Rom 9:18
So then he hath mercy on whom he will,-God has mercy on those who trust him that they may be saved.
and whom he will he hardeneth.-Pharaoh is an example of those that are hardened that they may be destroyed. [From this example is deduced the principle that no man can say: I am, whatever I may do, safe from the judgment of God, or such another, whatever he may do, is unworthy of the divine favor. The Israelites thought that in no case could they be abandoned by God, and in no case could the Gentiles be received by him. Paul here shows that they are grievously mistaken. The history of the hardening of Pharaoh was, no doubt, well fixed in the minds of all the Israelites. God, in raising him up, foresaw his proud resistance, and has in reserve to chastise it afterwards by a complete blindness which was to be the means of reaching the desired result. To harden is to take from a man the sense of the true, the just, and even the useful, so that he is no longer open to the wise admonitions and significant circumstances which should turn him aside from the evil way on which he has entered. The word harden cannot signify, in the account (Exo 4:1 to Exo 14:9), anything else as Gods act than it signifies as the act of Pharaoh when it is said he hardened himself. But what must not be forgotten, and what appears distinctly from the whole narrative, is that Pharaohs hardening was at first his own act. Five times it is said of him that he himself hardened his heart (Exo 7:13-14; Exo 7:22; Exo 8:15; Exo 8:32; Exo 9:7), before the time when at last it is said that God hardened his heart (Exo 9:12) ; and even after that, as if a remnant of liberty still remained to him, it is said for the last time that he hardened himself (Exo 9:34-35). Then at length, as if by way of a terrible retribution, God hardened him five times. (Exo 10:1; Exo 10:20; Exo 10:27; Exo 11:10; Exo 14:8). Thus he at first closed his heart obstinately against the influence exercised on him by the summonses of Moses and the first chastisements which overtook him-that was his sin; and thereafter, but still within limits, God rendered him deaf not merely to the voice of justice, but that of sound sense and simple prudence-that was his punishment. Far, then, from its having been God who urged to evil, God punished him with the most terrible chastisements for the evils to which he voluntarily gave himself up.
In this expression, hardening, we find the same idea as in God gave them up, by which the apostle expressed Gods judgment on the Gentiles, because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God. (Rom 1:21). When man has willfully quenched the light he has received and the first rebukes of divine mercy, and when he persists in giving himself up to his evil course, there comes a time when God withdraws from him the beneficent action of his grace. The man becomes insensible even to the counsels of prudence. He has rejected salvation for himself; he was free to do so; but he cannot prevent God from now making use of him and of his ruin to advance the salvation of others. From being the end he is degraded to the rank of means. Such was the lot of Pharaoh. Egypt saw clearly whither his mad resistance tended. His magicians told him: This is the finger of God. (Exo 8:19). His servants said to him: How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go. (Exo 10:7). He himself, after every plague, felt his heart relent. He even went the length of exclaiming: I have sinned this time: Jehovah is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. (Exo 9:27). Now was the decisive instant; for the last time after this moment of softening he hardened himself. (Exo 9:34). Then the righteousness of God took hold of him. He had refused to glorify God actively; he must glorify him passively. The Israelites of Pauls day did not disapprove of this conduct on Gods part as long as it concerned only Pharaoh or the Gentiles; but what they affirmed, in virtue of their having been chosen to be Gods peculiar people, was that never, and on no condition, could they themselves be the objects of such a judgment. They restricted the liberty of divine judgment on themselves, as they restricted the liberty of grace toward the Gentiles. In the verse before us he reestablishes both liberties, vindicating Gods sole right to judge whether this or that man possesses the conditions on which he will think fit to show him favor, or those which will make it suitable for him to punish by hardening him.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
hath: Rom 9:15, Rom 9:16, Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21, Eph 1:6
will he: Rom 1:24-28, Rom 11:7, Rom 11:8, Exo 4:21, Exo 7:13, Deu 2:30, Jos 11:20, Isa 63:17, Mat 13:14, Mat 13:15, Act 28:26-28, 2Th 2:10-12
Reciprocal: Gen 19:16 – the Lord Exo 9:7 – the heart Exo 10:20 – General Deu 7:7 – The Lord Job 9:12 – What Psa 69:27 – Add Psa 86:2 – holy Isa 43:13 – I will work Hos 2:4 – I will not Mat 11:26 – for Joh 12:40 – hardened Act 19:9 – divers Rom 3:5 – Is God Rom 9:21 – the potter 1Co 12:11 – as
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
:18
Romans 9:18. Verses 15 and 17 should be considered with this one.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Rom 9:18. So then (as in Rom 9:16; the E. V. varies unnecessarily), summing up the whole matter, after considering both sides.
On whom he will he hath mercy. We thus restore the correspondence in form between the two clauses. Here the emphasis rests on will; not, as in Rom 9:15, on whom.
Whom he will he hardeneth. Here, as throughout, the freedom of God is the main thought; the holiness, love, and wisdom of His will are implied. Hence we say, this freedom is not arbitrary, but more because of what God is, than from our ability to explain how it is so. As respects the word hardeneth, it assumes, as does the whole discussion, the presence of sin in the individual, without referring to its origin. It here suggests such a fortification in sin, that the sinner is unsusceptible of all workings of grace and better influences, the removal into a state where conversion is either absolutely impossible, or rendered difficult in the highest degree. This may be termed an act of God, in so far as He has ordained the laws of the development of evil, that, propagating still, it brings forth evil(Schiller). The objection which follows (Rom 9:19) shows that the Apostle regards this hardening of Pharaoh as penal, and hence as to some extent effected by God. The personal tone of the answer (Rom 9:20) indicates further that the principle is of universal application.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
As if he had said, “From these scripture instances we may gather and conclude, that God may without the least injustice magnify his mercy, in sparing and pardoning some sinners, and render his justice glorious in punishing others; yea, in punishing sin with sin, hardening them judicially, who had hardened themselves obstinately.”
Here observe, That God did not harden Pharaoh’s heart by any positive act or influx upon it, by infusing any evil into it; for this would make God the author of sin; but he was hardened by way of judiciary tradition, after he had long hardened himself.
First, He was delivered up into the hand of Satan, who deluded him by the magicians counterfeiting the same miracle that Moses wrought; and this hardened him against the belief of any thing that Moses either did or said.
Secondly, He was delivered up to his own lusts, particularly idolatry, ambition, and covetousness; and these hardened Pharaoh’s heart. As an idolater, he was loath to receive a message from the God of Israel, whom he knew not: Who is the Lord, says he, that I should obey him? I know not the Lord.
As an ambitious prince, it went to his very heart, to hear so mean a man as Moses control him in his own dominions, saying, Let the people go, that they may serve the Lord. This enraged him, to hear of any lord over that people but himself; and as a covetous man, he was loath to hear of parting with a people, by whose pains, in making brick, he had so great an income. Thus Pharaoh’s affected hardness was followed with inflicted hardness.
Learn hence, That God doth justly deliver that man up to hardness of heart by way of punishment, who has often hardened his own heart against God by repeated acts of sin.
Juste toties cor ejus obduratur in paenam, Quoties ipse cor suum obduravit in culpam. Lightfoot.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 18. From this particular example Paul deduces, as in Rom 9:16, the general principle, while reproducing by way of antithesis the maxim of Rom 9:16, so as to combine the two aspects in which he wishes here to present divine liberty: No man can say either: I am, whatever I may do, safe from the judgment of God, or such another, whatever he may do, is unworthy of the divine favor.
The repetition of the words: him that willeth, as well as their position at the head of the two sentences, shows that the emphasis is on this idea. To a son who should complain of the favors granted to one of his brothers, and of the severe treatment to which he is himself subjected, might it not be said: Thy father is free both to show favor and to chastise; it being understood that the man who answers thus does not confound liberty with caprice, and assumes that the father’s character sufficiently secures the wise and just exercise of his liberty? We must here cite the observation of Bengel, fixing the antithesis Paul has in view, and explaining his words: The Jews thought that in no case could they be abandoned by God, and in no case could the Gentiles be received by God. The apostle breaks the iron circle within which this people claimed to confine the divine conduct toward themselves and the Gentiles, saying: to the Gentiles wrath; to us, the only elect, clemency!
What is meant by the term hardening, and what leads the apostle to use the expression here? The notion of hardening was not contained in the term raised up, but in its relation to the conjunction that which follows (see Meyer); besides, the narrative of Exodus was in the memory of every reader. God, in raising up Pharaoh, foresaw his proud resistance, and had in reserve to chastise it afterward by a complete blindness which was to be the means of reaching the desired result.
To harden signifies: to take from a man the sense of the true, the just, and even the useful, so that he is no longer open to the wise admonitions and significant circumstances which should turn him aside from the evil way on which he has entered. We need not therefore seek to weaken the force of the term, as Origen and Grotius do, who regard it as only a simple permission on the part of God (leaving the sinner to harden himself), or like Carpzov, Semler, etc., who explain it in the sense of treating harshly. The word harden cannot signify, in the account Exodus 4-14, anything else, as God’s act, than it signifies as the act of Pharaoh, when it is said that he hardened himself. But what must not be forgotten, and what appears distinctly from the whole narrative, is, that Pharaoh’s hardening was at first his own act. Five times it is said of him that he himself hardened or made heavy his heart (Exo 7:13-14, Exo 7:22, Exo 8:15, Exo 8:32, Exo 9:7; we do not speak here of Exo 4:21 and Exo 7:3, which are a prophecy), before the time when it is at last said that God hardened him (Exo 9:12); and even after that, as if a remnant of liberty still remained to him, it is said for a last time that he hardened himself (Exo 9:34-35). It was a parallel act to that of Judas closing his heart to the last appeal. Then at length, as if by way of a terrible retribution, God hardened him five times (Exo 10:1; Exo 10:20, Exo 10:27, Exo 11:10, and Exo 14:8). Thus he at first closed his heart obstinately against the influence exercised on him by the summonses of Moses and the first chastisements which overtook him; that was his sin. And thereafter, but still within limits, God rendered him deaf not merely to the voice of justice, but to that of sound sense and simple prudence: that was his punishment.
Far, then, from its having been God who urged him to evil, God punished him with the most terrible chastisements, for the evil to which he voluntarily gave himself up. In this expression hardening we find the same idea as in the (God gave them up), by which the apostle expressed God’s judgment on the Gentiles for their refusal to welcome the revelation which He gave of Himself in nature and conscience (Rom 1:24; Rom 1:26; Rom 1:28). When man has wilfully quenched the light he has received and the first rebukes of divine mercy, and when he persists in giving himself up to his evil instincts, there comes a time when God withdraws from him the beneficent action of His grace. Then the man becomes insensible even to the counsels of prudence. He is thenceforth like a horse with the bit in his teeth, running blindly to his destruction. He has rejected salvation for himself, he was free to do so; but he cannot prevent God from now making use of him and of his ruin to advance the salvation of others. From being the end, he is degraded to the rank of means. Such was the lot of Pharaoh. Everybody in Egypt saw clearly whither his mad resistance tended. His magicians told him (Exo 8:19): This is the finger of God. His servants told him (Exo 10:7): Let these people go. He himself, after every plague, felt his heart relent. He once went the length of crying out (Exo 9:27): I have sinned this time; the Lord is righteous. Now was the decisive instant…for the last time after this moment of softening he hardened himself (Exo 9:33). Then the righteousness of God took hold of him. He had refused to glorify God actively, he must glorify Him passively. The Jews did not at all disapprove of this conduct on God’s part as long as it concerned only Pharaoh or the Gentiles; but what they affirmed, in virtue of their divine election, was, that never, and on no condition, could they themselves be the objects of such a judgment. They restricted the liberty of divine judgment on themselves, as they restricted the liberty of grace toward the Gentiles. Paul in our verse re-establishes both liberties, vindicating God’s sole right to judge whether this or that man possesses the conditions on which He will think fit to show him favor, or those which will make it suitable for Him to punish by hardening him.
Thus understoodand we do not think that either the context of the apostle, or that of Exodus allows it to be understood otherwiseit offers nothing to shock the conscience; it is entirely to the glory of the divine character, and Holsten has no right to paraphrase or rather to caricature the view of Paul by saying: God shows grace, pure arbitrariness; God hardens, pure arbitrariness.
Perhaps we shall be charged with introducing into the explanation of the apostolic text clauses which are not found in it. This charge is just; only it is not against us that it comes. The reserves indicated in our interpretation arose of themselves, we think, from the special case the apostle had in view. For he was not here writing a philosophy or a system of Christian dogmatics; he was combating a determined adversary, Jewish Pharisaism with its lofty pretensions both in relation to the Gentiles, and relatively to God Himself. Paul, therefore, only unveils the side of the truth overlooked by this adversary, that of divine liberty. Certainly if Paul had been disputing with an opponent who started from the opposite point of view, and who exaggerated divine liberty so as to make it a purely arbitrary and tyrannical will, he would have brought out the opposite side of the truth, that of the moral conditions which are taken into account by a wise and good sovereignty, like that of God.
This occasional character of the apostle’s teaching in this chapter has not always been considered; men have sought in it a general and complete exposition of the doctrine of the divine decrees; and so they have completely mistaken its meaning. And hence we have been forced to put ourselves at the general standpoint by supplying the clauses which the apostle took for granted, and the statement of which was not required by the particular application he had in view.
The apostle has proved from Scripture God’s liberty to show grace when He thinks right, as well as His liberty to chastise by hardening when He thinks right. On this point the adversary can make no reply; he is forced to accept the apostle’s demonstration. But here is his rejoinder: Granted! says he, God has the right to harden me. But at least let Him not claim to complain of me after having hardened me. To this new rejoinder the apostle answers first by a figure, which he will afterward apply to the case in question. The figure of the potter:
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
So then [see Rom 9:16] he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. [This does not mean that God arbitrarily chooses the worst people upon whom to shower his mercies, and chooses those who are trying hard to serve him and hardens them that he may punish them. The point is that, in the absence of any promise or other self-imposed limitation. God is free to choose whom he will for what he will. As applicable to Paul’s argument, it means that God’s freedom of choice is not bound by man’s judgment or estimation, for he may prefer the publican to the Pharisee (Luk 18:9-14) and may choose rather to be known as the friend of sinners than the companion of the rulers and chief priests, and he may elect the hedge-row Gentile to the exclusion of invited but indifferent Jews (Luk 14:23-24). God is bound by his nature to choose justly and righteously, but all history shows that man can not depend upon his sin-debased judgment when he attempts to specify what or whom God approves or rejects. Here we must be guided wholly by his word, and must also be prayerfully careful not to wrest it. In short, it is safer to say that God chooses absolutely, than to say that God chooses according to my judgment, for human judgment must rarely square with the divine mind. Had the Jew accepted Paul’s proposition, he might centuries ago have seen the obvious fact that God has chosen the Gentiles and rejected him; but, persisting in his erroneous theory that God’s judgment and choice must follow his own petty notions and whims, he is blind to that liberty of God’s of which the apostle wrote, and naturally–
“For, Och! mankind are unco weak,
An’ little to be trusted;
If self the wavering balance shake,
It’s rarely right adjusted!”]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
9:18 {15} Therefore hath he mercy on whom he {t} will [have mercy], and whom he will he hardeneth.
(15) A conclusion of the full answer to the first objection: therefore seeing that God does not save those whom he freely chose according to his good will and pleasure, but by justifying and sanctifying them by his grace, his counsels in saving them cannot seem unjust. And again, there is not injustice in the everlasting counsel of God, with regard to the destruction of those whom he lifts to destroy, because he hardens before he destroys: therefore the third answer for the maintenance of God’s justice in the everlasting counsel of reprobation, consists in this word “hardening”: which nonetheless he concealed in the former verse, because the history of Pharaoh was well known. But the force of the word is great, for hardening, which is set against “mercy”, presupposes the same things that mercy did, that is, a voluntary corruption, in which the reprobate are hardened: and again, corruption presupposes a perfect state of creation. Moreover, this hardening also is voluntary, for God hardens in such a way, being offended with corruption, that he uses their own will whom he hardens, for the executing of that judgment. Then follow the fruits of hardening, that is, unbelief and sin, which are the true and proper causes of the condemnation of the reprobate. Why does he then appoint to destruction? Because he wishes: why does he harden? Because they are corrupt: why does he condemn? Because they are sinners. Where then is unrighteousness? Nay, if he would destroy all after this manner, to whom would he do injury?
(t) Whom it pleased him to appoint, to show his favour upon.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This statement summarizes Paul’s point. In chapter 1 the apostle had spoken about the way God gives people over to their own evil desires as a form of punishment for their sins. This is how God hardens people’s hearts. In Pharaoh’s case we see this working out clearly. God was not unjust because He allowed the hardening process to continue. His justice demanded punishment. Similarly, a person may chose to drink poison or he may choose not to, but if he chooses to drink it, inevitable consequences will follow.
"Neither here nor anywhere else is God said to harden anyone who had not first hardened himself." [Note: Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 361.]
"God’s hardening, then, is an action that renders a person insensitive to God and his word and that, if not reversed, culminates in eternal damnation." [Note: Moo, p. 597.]
"God’s hardening does not, then, cause spiritual insensitivity to the things of God; it maintains people in the state of sin that already characterizes them." [Note: Ibid., p. 599. See also Dorian G. Coover Cox, "The Hardening of Pharaoh’s Heart in Its Literary and Cultural Contexts," Bibliotheca Sacra 163:651 (July-September 2006):292-311.]
". . . we say boldly, that a believer’s heart is not fully yielded to God until it accepts without question, and without demanding softening, this eighteenth verse." [Note: Newell, p. 369.]
Paul did not mention the fact that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, which Moses stated in Exodus. Paul’s point was simply that God can freely and justly extend mercy or not extend mercy to those who deserve His judgment.
"The reconciliation of God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility is beyond our power. The Bible states and emphasizes both, and then leaves them. We shall be wise if we do the same." [Note: Griffith Thomas, St. Paul’s Epistle . . ., p. 257. Cf. p. 266.]