Hi,

I know that the Bible isn't supposed to contradict itself, but some of these verses seem like it does. Maybe it's translation, but can you find anything to make sense of them? I have four versions listed here.

Genesis 6:5-7 (New King James Version)
5Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7So the LORD said, "I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."

Genesis 6:5-7 (King James Version)
5And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.

7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Genesis 6:5-7 (Amplified Bible)
5The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.

6And the Lord regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved at heart.

7So the Lord said, I will destroy, blot out, and wipe away mankind, whom I have created from the face of the ground--not only man, [but] the beasts and the creeping things and the birds of the air--for it grieves Me and makes Me regretful that I have made them.

Genesis 6:5-7 (New International Version)

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth-men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air-for I am grieved that I have made them."

Numbers 23:18-20 (New King James Version)
18Then he took up his oracle and said:
"Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, son of Zippor!
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?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? [/b]
20Behold, I have received a command to bless;
He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

Numbers 23:18-20 (King James Version)
18And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:

19God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

20Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.

Numbers 23:18-20 (Amplified Bible)
18Balaam took up his [figurative] discourse and said: Rise up, Balak, and hear; listen [closely] to me, son of Zippor.

19God is not a man, that He should tell or act a lie, neither the son of man, that He should feel repentance or compunction [for what He has promised]. Has He said and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?

20You see, I have received His command to bless Israel. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse or qualify it.

Numbers 23:18-20 (New King James Version)
18Then he took up his oracle and said:
"Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, son of Zippor!
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?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
20Behold, I have received a command to bless;
He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

Joan, excellent question! As I'm sure you already know there are many verses that say God repented. So how do we reconcile all those passages with this one passage that says He doesn't? Well, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and use the much overused and highly overrated response of....context, context, context!

I've often heard it said that as bible students we should never take one passage and build a doctrine on it. And I think that is often exactly what is done in regards to Numbers 23:18-20!

Without addressing all the specific passages regarding God's repentance, I'll attempt to make this brief...

Numbers 23:18-20

And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.

We are going to have to go back a few chapters and get that dreaded context.

Numbers 22:6

Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they [are] too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, [that] we may smite them, and [that] I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest [is] blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.

Balak plead with Balaam to go to the Lord and have Him curse the children of Israel because he (Balak) feared them. So Balaam inquired of the Lord to curse Israel....

Numbers 22:11

Behold, [there is] a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth: come now, curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out.

But God said....

Numbers 22:12

And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they [are] blessed.

Balak sends more honorable princes who beg and plead with Balaam to curse the people despite God saying no....

Numbers 22:16-17

And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me: For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.

Once again Balaam replies that He cannot do anything other than what God has told him to do which at that time was to bless the children of Israel.

22:18

And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more.

So, on to chapter 23....

Numbers 23:18-23

And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: God [is] not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do [it]? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God [is] with him, and the shout of a king [is] among them.

I'll allow you to continue reading to see the outcome of this pleading. But it was understood that according to principles God clearly laid out later in Jeremiah that if they obeyed they would be blessed. If they did not, they would be cursed.

Jeremiah 18:7-10

[At what] instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy [it]; 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. And [at what] instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant [it]; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

Since in Numbers 23 there was no iniquity found in them, He could not repent and curse them because based on His rules of repentance, He would be a liar. God doesn't lie and He don't repent like man does. But He does repent. I hope that helps.

Anyone else have any other thoughts? I too am curious how others would address this issue.

Part of the context is the grief that is caused to God by the people. Notice that God says it grieved him also. The repenting/regretting/sorry making was part of that, and existed before any other action on his part; for me, regret is more along the lines of it than the idea of changing because of a situation, as we would consider repenting in its specialised religious use of turning from our sins. It would cause him grief that he had set things up very good, and now it was very bad, and would require some drastic action, so that his purposes could continue - and those purposes did not mean the total starting again, just as he told Moses later, but the renewing of the work, through Noah. He would not turn from that work, no matter what modifications it seemed to require along the way. God has a plan, and he will not repent [either feel grief because of his choice for that plan and no other, nor change his mind about that plan].

Where God gives stipulations and conditions to men, as in Jeremiah, then repenting just means that he will stop doing the thing he said he will do - ie punish and chastise them - if they will stop; it doesn't mean he changes his mind, it just means that he will go back to blessing them as he said he would, if they stopped sinning.

Hi!
Joan, in all the versions you cite, the word 'repent' stays the same in Numbers but changes in Genesis - is the Hebrew word the same in both?

Gen 6.6, Num 23.19
Brown Driver Briggs
nâcham - 'repent'
BDB Definition:
1) to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted
1a) (Niphal)
1a1) to be sorry, be moved to pity, have compassion
1a2) to be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent
1a3) to comfort oneself, be comforted
1a4) to comfort oneself, ease oneself
1b) (Piel) to comfort, console
1c) (Pual) to be comforted, be consoled
1d) (Hithpael)
1d1) to be sorry, have compassion
1d2) to rue, repent of
1d3) to comfort oneself, be comforted
1d4) to ease oneself

‛âtsab - grieve
BDB Definition:
1) to hurt, pain, grieve, displease, vex, wrest
1a) (Qal) to hurt, pain
1b) (Niphal) to be in pain, be pained, be grieved
1c) (Piel) to vex, torture
1d) (Hiphil) to cause pain
1e) (Hithpael) to feel grieved, be vexed
2) to shape, fashion, make, form, stretch into shape, (TWOT) worship
2a) (Piel) to shape, form
2b) (Hiphil) to form, copy, fashion

Originally posted by Solly

Part of the context is the grief that is caused to God by the people. Notice that God says it grieved him also. The repenting/regretting/sorry making was part of that, and existed before any other action on his part; for me, regret is more along the lines of it than the idea of changing because of a situation, as we would consider repenting in its specialised religious use of turning from our sins. It would cause him grief that he had set things up very good, and now it was very bad, and would require some drastic action, so that his purposes could continue - and those purposes did not mean the total starting again, just as he told Moses later, but the renewing of the work, through Noah. He would not turn from that work, no matter what modifications it seemed to require along the way. God has a plan, and he will not repent [either feel grief because of his choice for that plan and no other, nor change his mind about that plan].

Where God gives stipulations and conditions to men, as in Jeremiah, then repenting just means that he will stop doing the thing he said he will do - ie punish and chastise them - if they will stop; it doesn't mean he changes his mind, it just means that he will go back to blessing them as he said he would, if they stopped sinning.

progressive adullamites propose that God is conditioned by humans?

No; God and humans have a relationship, as you well know Boom. Unless you are saying that the Gospel call to repent [turn from our sins/turn to God] and believe that we might be saved also conditions God upon human choices. But then, perhaps you do...

In hopes of keeping Jin-Roh's thread on God changing His mind on topic, I thought I'd this thread up for further discussion.

Hi everyone,

Originally posted by Xmansmommy

Since in Numbers 23 there was no iniquity found in them, He could not repent and curse them because based on His rules of repentance, He would be a liar. God doesn't lie and He don't repent like man does. But He does repent. I hope that helps.

But they were indeed sinning, even then!

Deuteronomy 9:7 Remember this and never forget how you provoked the LORD your God to anger in the desert. From the day you left Egypt until you arrived here, you have been rebellious against the Lord.

And remember what happened just after this, Balaam whispered in Balak's ear that maybe he should see if some of the women would be willing to be married to some of the Israelites and turn them to idol worship. And that is just what happened.

Yet God said, "They are blessed, and I won't change my mind." So this didn't depend on the Israelites having a spotless record! Quite the contrary, they did not. And yet God blessed them, as he blessed old tricky Jacob, on his way to uncle Laban's house because he just made Esau mad for stealing his blessing.

This is a similar situation, even! God had blessed Jacob, "before they had done good or bad," and Jacob sinned in getting the blessing, and yet (this blessing did not depend on him) he did not forfeit God's promise.

Genesis 27:33 Isaac trembled violently and said, "Who was it, then, that hunted game and brought it to me? I ate it just before you came and I blessed him-- and indeed he will be blessed!"

God's promise was unconditional, he swore by himself, and Balak with Balaam the famous prophet, and all his gifts and his gold, could not change God's mind.

Blessings (unconditionally!),
Lee