passages.
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"Relent," this paper proposes, is a better choice than "God changed His mind" or "God
repented over/was sorry about." The latter two translations can mislead the reader into thinking that God
really does not know what He is going to do, that He initially decides on one course of action, but in the
end takes another course. Worse yet, the reader might in addition believe that God in the heat of His anger
can say some things that He is sorry about later on, realizing that His words were a mistake. The
fundamental concept throughout all this type of thinking is that God does not have complete
foreknowledge, even with regard to His own activity.
That concept and type of thinking are incorrect. God is not limited in His knowledge, as well as
capricious, and subject to uncontrollable fits of anger which lead Him into errors. Besides being
omniscient, God is fully in control of Himself (to speak anthropomorphically) and all situations. He is
consistently holy, just, and righteous in His thoughts, words, and actions.
In Exodus 32:14 nacham is an anthropopathic term imparting, anthropopathically, spiritual truths to
us mere sinful mortals. God in His Word comes down to our level, communicating with us in the best,
most effective manner, to the limit of our understanding. What are we to see, then, in the use of nacham in
Exodus 32:14?
This verb conveys, as discussed above, the dual aspects of decision and emotion. God, who is
immutable and outside of time, is portrayed as making a decision in time, due to a change in His emotions.
Righteously angry with the Israelites, and speaking of consuming them, God turns from His fierce wrath
(as Moses requested), and spares them. God knew from eternity what He would do and how the situation
would turn out; but from Moses', and the reader's, point of view, God holds out one course of action, and
then goes with another.
It should be noted that God did not say to Moses, "I will" destroy the Israelites. Rather, He said,
"Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them [v. 10;
NKJV]." These words carry a hint of conditionality. They imply that someone can stand in the way of
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E.g., Exodus 32:12; 2 Samuel 24:16 (1 Chronicles 21:15); Isaiah 57:6; Jeremiah 4:28; 15:6; 18:8, 10;
20:16; 26:3, 13, 19; 42:10; Ezekiel 24:14; Joel 2:13, 14; Amos 7:3, 6; Jonah 3:9, 10; Zechariah 8:14; Psalm
106:45.