Kehillah in Rome 9:18

18 So then, to whom Hashem wills Hashem shows chaninah (mercy, free grace), but whom Hashem wills he hardens (that is, makes unresponsive or more mired down in KESHI (stubbornness, hardness)[DEVARIM 9:27].

Kehillah in Rome 9:18 Meaning and Commentary

Romans 9:18

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 ( Isaiah 6:10 ) ( Romans 11:8-10 ) ; 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.

Kehillah in Rome 9:18 In-Context

16 So then, it is not a matter of the one who wills or the one who runs. It is a matter of the YAD HASHEM HACHANINAH (the hand of the G-d of gracious, free mercy).

17 For the Kitvei Hakodesh says to Pharaoh, BA’AVUR ZOT HE’EMADTICHA BA’AVUR HAROTECHA ES KOCHI ULEMA’AN SAPER SHMI BECHOL HA’ARETZ ("For this purpose I raised you up, in order that I might demonstrate in you my power and in order that my Name might be proclaimed in all the earth" SHEMOT 9:16).

18 So then, to whom Hashem wills Hashem shows chaninah (mercy, free grace), but whom Hashem wills he hardens (that is, makes unresponsive or more mired down in KESHI (stubbornness, hardness)[DEVARIM 9:27].

19 You will say to me, “Then why does Hashem still find fault? For who has resisted His will?"

20 On the contrary, who are you, a human being, to answer back to G-d? VEYETZER AMAR LEYOTZRO ("Can the pot say to the potter" YESHAYAH 29:16), "Why have you made me thus?"