Tim Maas Supporter Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I believe the question concerns the seeming conflict between verses such as Numbers 23:19 ("God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?"), and other passages such as Genesis 6:6 ("And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart."), or Exodus 32:14 ("And the LORD repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people.") 

Since God is omniscient, He knew at the time that He created man, or that He told Moses what He planned to do to the people of Israel for their disobedience, what the final outcome of each situation would be -- that is, that He would not totally destroy humanity for its sin, but eventually redeem it by the life, death, and resurrection of His Son; or that He would not eradicate everyone in Israel except Moses. Therefore, it would not be accurate to say that He repented or changed His mind in human terms (although He was undoubtedly grieved or displeased at what humanity or the Israelites, of their own free will, had done).

God displays this same characteristic when people respond to the Holy Spirit's prompting to repent, or when Christians pray in obedience to the Bible's command to do so. God knows what He is going to ultimately do, but it is our repentance and prayer that draw us closer to God and His will.

Sometimes, when God is described as repenting, it is a case of God having announced an intention to do something, but with the implication that that course of action was subject to change. For example, in Jonah 3, God commanded Jonah to go to Nineveh and warn the people there of Nineveh's impending destruction, with the implied purpose of inducing them to forsake their sins. When the people changed their attitude and behavior, God is described (in the King James Version) as "repenting" of what He had said He would do, although His sparing of Nineveh was due to the fact that the people of Nineveh did not persist in their sin, rather than being the result of a change in God's characteristics. 

Describing God's actions in terms of human repentance is as close as the limitations of language can come to depicting what occurred, and are an anthropomorphic concession (where God is ascribed human qualities) to portray God's nature in terms that we can understand, even though we will never fully comprehend God's complexity, or be able to convey it adequately in words.

(It was to even more clearly achieve this objective that God became a human being. Jesus' encounter with the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30 displays God's ability to apparently alter a course of action based on demonstrated faith and entreaty. But, even here, Jesus, being God (or even simply from a human standpoint), knew that He would heal the woman's daughter. His behavior toward the woman was designed to allow the woman to testify to her faith, which has ever since encouraged people who have read about her in the Gospels to be persistent in their own faith and prayer.)

November 17 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jeffrey Johnson Supporter

What does it mean when it says God repented?

When the Bible says "God repented" (Hebrew: nacham), it generally means He relented, showed compassion, or changed his course of action in response to human behaviour, rather than feeling regret for a mistake. This is an anthropomorphism—using human terms to describe divine actions—signifying a shift in relationship, not a change in God's immutable nature.

Relenting from Punishment: Often, God "repents" of bringing judgment when people turn from their sin, such as in Jonah 3:10 and Exodus 32:14.

Grief Over Human Action: In Genesis 6:6, God is described as having sorrow in his heart over humanity's wickedness, revealing his emotional response to human rebellion.

In Exodus 32:14, God "repented" (or "relented," KJV) of the destruction He threatened against the Israelites because Moses interceded on behalf of the people, pleading for mercy after they worshipped a golden calf. This does not mean God sinned, but rather that He changed His action to show mercy, upholding His covenant promise to Abraham rather than destroying them.

An example of God "Repenting" Jonah 3:10 ESV: "10 And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil which he said he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Does this mean that God decided that his own judgment about Nineveh had been in error? No. The Bible explains that Jehovah's justice is perfect. Read Deuteronomy 32:4. ESV: "The Rock, his work is perfect; For all his ways are justice: A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, Just and right is he."
God's righteous anger against Nineveh abated. He observed the change in those people and realised that the punishment he had intended for them would no longer be fitting. This was an occasion to show divine mercy.

3:10​—The Hebrew word rendered "felt regret" means to "change one's mind about past (or intended) action.” 

God can 'feel regret' or change his mind about bringing punishment upon erring humans when they truly repent.

First Samuel 15 is key for understanding biblical statements about God having "regrets," or "repenting," or "relenting," or otherwise changing his mind. Like Genesis 6, this chapter describes an apparent change in God: "I regret that I have made Saul king."

Because God is perfect, these verses cannot mean that God made a mistake in selecting Saul to be Israel's first king. 

God must rather have felt regret because Saul, as a free moral agent, had not made good use of the splendid privilege and opportunity God had afforded him, and because Saul's change called for a change in God's dealings with him.​—1Sa 15:10, 11, 26.

God said that he "regretted [from the Hebrew na·chamʹ] that he had made Saul king over Israel.” In other words, God felt sorry that Saul turned out to be faithless and disobedient.

May 04 2026 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report