Does God repent?
God never changes His mind as a man does; Scripture says He repents when He turns His dealings, as He said He would, toward men who have turned.
The Passages
Numbers 23:19
Genesis 6:6
See Also
1 Samuel 15:11
1 Samuel 15:29
Jeremiah 18:7-10
James 1:17
Isaiah 63:10
The Difficulty
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent” (Numbers 23:19), and with Him “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). Yet “it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth” (Genesis 6:6), and of Israel, “he was turned to be their enemy” (Isaiah 63:10).
The Answer
One chapter has both. The LORD says, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king” (1 Samuel 15:11); Samuel says, “the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent” (15:29); and the chapter ends, “the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel” (15:35). The same writer uses the word two ways. God doesn’t repent as a man does, changing his mind or going back on his word. He does turn His dealings as men turn, and Scripture speaks of that after the manner of men (Gill).
He said beforehand that He would: “If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them” (Jeremiah 18:8), and the same of the good, if a nation does evil (18:10). The change is in the people, and His turning follows His unchanging word. So in Isaiah, “they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy” (Isaiah 63:10).
Sources
-
not that repentance, properly speaking, can fall upon God, for he never changes his mind or alters his purposes, though he sometimes changes the course and dispensations of his providence. This is speaking by an anthropopathy, after the manner of men
Checked against: Internet Archive scan of the first edition, 2026-10-28
