Did God Really Repent?

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DiscipulusLucis

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Exodus 32, when God was about to smite the Isrealites for worshiping a golden cow, but Moses talked Him out of it:

14And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

This strikes me as very odd - if god is omniscient and perfect, he would never err, and there would be nothing to repent. That is demonstrated in Malichi 3:6

6For I am the Lord, I change not…

Looking up the Hebrew words for repent and evil, I suppose it’s possible to make the argument that he “felt sorry about the misery” he thought to do, but I those meanings for the Hebrew words are very oblique, so I feel that would be kind of a stretch.
 
The NAB says “So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.”

My RSV CE2 uses the word “repented”.

Searching online, it appears that “repent” when translated from Hebrew and Greek counterparts, is “the act of returning” or “turning in the opposite direction”. It would be helpful for a linguist to comment.

Regardless, God is perfect love, could not sin (by definition), and could not repent in the sense that we repent for our sins.
 
Actually, I am a linguist, and, while I quoted from the KJV, I researched the words in the Hebrew. Though I don’t know Ancient Hebrew, I do have experience translating ancient texts, and I used side by side translations along with dictionaries and glosses to find that rrepent and evil are actually rather appropriate words.

Of course, as I said, the argument could be made that more infrequent meaning of these lexemes should be understood due to a broader semantic range, just as, although gnarly means gross and twisted, it has semantically broadened through metaphor to mean awesome/cool for some speakers.

Looking at the complete verb phrase, I’d say that there’s a much stronger case for this translation (repented of evil) being appropriate, but you can always dig your heels into the ground and there’s nothing anyone could say to tell you you’re wrong.
 
Hi Discipulus,

The Bible has many expressions that seem to attribute to Him some human emotions. Emotions are a combination of thoughts and physical reactions. God is one unchangeable eternal act. He cannot change. Therefore he has no emotions.

God knows from eternity what will happen at every single moment of time. Therefore, when the Bible says that God “repents”, we must understand this as saying that God does something that, if it were done by a human, would indicate regret.
The Bible uses human language the better to communicate.

Is my answer clear enough?

Verbum
 
Thanks for the reply Verbum.

I understand that you are saying that since God is immutable while man is the converse, it does not mean the same for God to repent as for man to repent. The Bible must be read with these things in mind.

However, I am still uncertain of some things.
  1. If God didn’t repent as man would, why say that he did so, since the reader is man and therefore has understanding only of human repentence?
  2. If God didn’t repent as man would, what did he do? What is that line trying to say?
 
lutherlic said:
The NAB says “So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.”

My RSV CE2 uses the word “repented”.

Searching online, it appears that “repent” when translated from Hebrew and Greek counterparts, is “the act of returning” or “turning in the opposite direction”. It would be helpful for a linguist to comment.

Regardless, God is perfect love, could not sin (by definition), and could not repent in the sense that we repent for our sins.
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Turning, or turning in the opposite direction is a reasonable translation of the Hebrew word for repent. God turned from the judgment that He intended for the Israelites because of their pagan worship. Moses interceded for His mercy, and thus God turned from such judgement.

When we repent of our sins we are turning away from our own will, and to the opposite direction of the will of our Heavenly Father. We are turning away from the evil of sin, and turning toward the goodness of God. If our Lord Jesus Christ was not constanly interceding for us before God our Father, most of us would be in danger of judgment.

Someone gave me a copy of St. Faustina’s Diary on the Divine Mercy. I remember one of her stories where she saw the sword of judgment that was over her nation Poland, she said that she interceded for God’s mercy, and God turned ‘repented’ from His judgment.

Sometimes judgment is needed in order for us to be humbled. “For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”.
 
byeveryword said:
Turning, or turning in the opposite direction is a reasonable translation of the Hebrew word for repent. God turned from the judgment that He intended for the Israelites because of their pagan worship. Moses interceded for His mercy, and thus God turned from such judgement.

When we repent of our sins we are turning away from our own will, and to the opposite direction of the will of our Heavenly Father. We are turning away from the evil of sin, and turning toward the goodness of God. If our Lord Jesus Christ was not constanly interceding for us before God our Father, most of us would be in danger of judgment.

Someone gave me a copy of St. Faustina’s Diary on the Divine Mercy. I remember one of her stories where she saw the sword of judgment that was over her nation Poland, she said that she interceded for God’s mercy, and God turned ‘repented’ from His judgment.

Sometimes judgment is needed in order for us to be humbled. “For God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble”.
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So are you saying that God was set to do something until Moses changed His mind? That also seems to postulate God not to be unchanging. I have never understood intercession.
 
DiscipulusLucis said:
So are you saying that God was set to do something until Moses changed His mind? That also seems to postulate God not to be unchanging. I have never understood intercession.
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God is Holy. He is just and He is merciful. Our adversary is always trying to condemn us before our just and holy God. The only remedy is for someone who is righteous to intervene on our behalf.

Moses was willing to intervene on behalf of the Israelites to the point that he was willing for his name to be removed from the book of life.

Our Lord Jesus Christ went further than Moses, he took upon himself the sins of the world, the condemnation of all our sins. I don’t know if anyone will fully understand the magnitude of the suffering our Lord Jesus Christ underwent for our sins. He was without sin himself. Therefore, our Heavenly Father honors the intercession of His beloved Son on our behalf, and our adversary, the devil is silenced.
 
DiscipulusLucis said:
Exodus 32, when God was about to smite the Isrealites for worshiping a golden cow, but Moses talked Him out of it:

14And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

This strikes me as very odd - if god is omniscient and perfect, he would never err, and there would be nothing to repent. That is demonstrated in Malichi 3:6

6For I am the Lord, I change not…

Looking up the Hebrew words for repent and evil, I suppose it’s possible to make the argument that he “felt sorry about the misery” he thought to do, but I those meanings for the Hebrew words are very oblique, so I feel that would be kind of a stretch.
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Hi,
God is speaking anthropromorphically.
 
The word repent in 1611 according to the Oxford dictionary had the meaning of “about face” in today’s military jargon. Basically, today the word repent has the meaning to speifically to turn away from sin. Back then it simply had the meaning of going in the opposite direction.
 
One should not assume. I assumed that the Hebrew word in the given scripture was ‘shuwb’.

For instance, as in Lamentations 5:21 “Turn us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned, renew (as in a new moon) our days as from the beginning.”

The actual Hebrew word is ‘nacham’, which means to sigh, to be sorry, or to rue. Therefore, in this verse it seems to be an anthropromorphical description of God as a previous poster wrote.
 
Big_Dummy said:
The word repent in 1611 according to the Oxford dictionary had the meaning of “about face” in today’s military jargon. Basically, today the word repent has the meaning to speifically to turn away from sin. Back then it simply had the meaning of going in the opposite direction.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but even in Latin 1600 years prior to this bible *repenitere *had the meaning of to feel sorry along side to turn back from. The two were both valid meanings of the word in 1611, but both go back as far as we can see with the word.

Furthermore, the english word is irrelevant, since this discussion has already verified the Hebrew word (which also has both of those meanings, but to turn back from is highly oblique).
 
byeveryword said:
One should not assume. I assumed that the Hebrew word in the given scripture was ‘shuwb’.

For instance, as in Lamentations 5:21 “Turn us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned, renew (as in a new moon) our days as from the beginning.”

The actual Hebrew word is ‘nacham’, which means to sigh, to be sorry, or to rue. Therefore, in this verse it seems to be an anthropromorphical description of God as a previous poster wrote.
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Okay, so the line is anthropomorphic, expressing God’s movement in direction of action. I can accept that.
 
DiscipulusLucis said:
Sorry, but even in Latin 1600 years prior to this bible *repenitere *had the meaning of to feel sorry along side to turn back from. The two were both valid meanings of the word in 1611, but both go back as far as we can see with the word.

Furthermore, the english word is irrelevant, since this discussion has already verified the Hebrew word (which also has both of those meanings, but to turn back from is highly oblique).
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And, which interpretation fits the nature of God? Can God repent of sin?
 
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