In order to make his argument even stronger, Paul appeals to a further passage of scripture (Exodus 9.16). The Good News Translation takes the first verb in this verse (literally “I raised you up”) to mean I made you king.

In some languages it is impossible to introduce direct discourse beginning with I (I made you king …) by the phrase the scripture says to Pharaoh, since the pronoun I would seem to refer to the scripture. Rather, one must have “for the scripture quotes God as saying to Pharaoh” or “for the words of God to Pharaoh occur in the scripture as” or “in the scripture God says to Pharaoh.”

In this quotation God tells Pharaoh that he has two reasons for making him king: (1) to use you to show my power and (2) to make my name known in all the world. Since there are clearly two purposes, for this very purpose may have to be made plural—for example, “for these reasons” or even “for the following reasons.”

To use you to show my power is literally “to show my power in you” (New English Bible “to exhibit my power in my dealings with you”; Jerusalem Bible “to use you as a means of showing my power”). In some languages this may be rendered as “to cause you to show how strong I am” or “… to show to all how great my power is.”

To make my name known in all the world (New English Bible “to spread my fame over all the world”; Moffatt “to spread news of my name over all the earth”) may be translated as “to cause all people throughout the world to know about me” or “… to know my name.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to the Romans. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1973. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .