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Paul then in 3:9 answers a reworded version of Objection 1 in 3:1 in a completely different way. "Are we better than the Gentiles?" the Jewish Objector asks. Paul responds not like he does in 3:2 ("Great in every respect!") but rather with "Not at all!" But he is in fact answering two different questions. The first asks if the Jews have any privileges by being the elect nation. In fact they do (cf. 9:3-4). The second asks if they have a different standing before God. In fact they don't.

Paul goes about proving this in 3:10-18 using a Greek technique and a Jewish technique. The first is "pearl stringing," which is to simply take a bunch of different quotes and list them one after another to make a strong point. The second is what the rabbis called gezerah shavah (literally: "a comparison of equals"), a technique that put together verses based off of a repeated word, phrase, or idea. In this case (3:10-12 being the exception since it acts as a header) each verse and quote deals with a body part.

Psalm 14:1-3
"There is no one
righteous, not even one;
11 there is no one who understands;
there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
not even one."
Psalm 5:9
13 "Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit."
Psalm 140:3
"The poison of vipers is on their lips."
Psalm 10:7
14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness."
Isaiah 59:7-8
15 "Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know."
Psalm 36:1
18 "There is no fear of God before their eyes."

Without being explicit, Paul responds in 3:19-20 to anyone who might object that the verses Paul uses are pulled out of context and/or do not deal with the Jewish nation but rather with the Gentile nations. Paul responds that "the Law" (this time used in a generic sense to mean the whole Tenach) was written for all those "under the Law," i.e. the Jews, earlier named in 2:12-16 and thus those verses refer to the Jews just as much as they do to the Gentiles.

Also of note, the repetition of body parts dealing with speech may be intentional if the Roman church is having problems with slander as the later chapters of Romans imply.

Verse 20 is a pivot-statement for Paul's argument, for here he finally outright says what he has been hinting at since the beginning: the Law does not justify, but only condemns. Unfortunately - for the Jew - it condemns just as much (if not more) than the Gentile. The logical conclusion then is that if the Law does not justify as once thought, then something else must. Romans 3:21ff answers what that something else is.