The following comes from:
Dalit Rom-Shiloni, Voices from the Ruins: Theodicy and the Fall
of Jerusalem in the Hebrew Bible (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2021), 156-57
Mental Anthropomorphisms
Mental anthropomorphism covers a
wide range of actions, emotions, desires, and so on. In the area of thought, Jeremiah
uses the epithet גדל העצה (“wondrous in purpose,” 32:19). Divine omniscience is
expressed in Jeremiah through ידע and חשב, as in כי אנכי ידעתי את־המחשׁבת אשׁר
אנכי חשׁב עליכם נאם־יהוה מחשׁבות שׁלום ולא לרעה (“for I am mindful of the plans
I have made concerning you—declares YHWH—plans for your welfare, not for
disaster,” 29:11, 23; similarly 1:5; 18:8, 11; P[rophecies]A[gainst]N[ations]
Jer 48:30). ידע occurs also in Ezek 11:5 as divine knowledge of the people’s
thoughts (compare the repeated demand to know God [e.g., Jer 9:23; 24:7]). God
plans his destructive deeds, זמם, and is determined to activate his מזמות
accordingly, so as to reach a complete and hazardous calamity (Jer 4:28; 23:30;
30:24; PAN Jer 51:12) [1]. God remembers (זכר) the distant and obedient
past (2:2) as well as the present, long-lasting obedience (31:34), and this
divine ability guarantees future salvation in a consolation prophecy (31:20) [2].
In Lam 2, God plans and executes the destruction (2:2, 17). With respect to the
quality of understanding, evildoers in Ps 94 are quoted as casting aspersions
on God’s understanding: לא יראה־יה ולא־יבין אלהי יעקב (“the LORD does not see
it, the God of Jacob does not pay heed [literally: does not understand],”
94:7). Common in communal laments are references to God as (not) remembering
and forgetting (לא זכר/שכח in Pss 10:11; 42:10; 44:25; Lam 5:1, 20).
The realm of emotions comprises
manifestations of divine anger (e.g., Lam 5:22) as well as references to mercy
and benevolence (3:22, 32), למען הכעיסני (Jer 7:18, 19; 8:19) is one phrase in
the rich inventory of rage phraseology, as for instance theparallel noun קצף
and זעם (10:10) or the triad אף, חמה, and קצף (21:5; 32:37; only קצף in PAN Jer
50:13) [3]. The period of the destruction and exile blatantly demonstrates
the absence of divine grace and mercy:לא חמל לא חס ולא רחם (e.g., Jer 13:14;
see Ps 77:10). God gathers his favor, grace, and compassion away from the
people: אספתי את־שׁלומי מאת העם־הזה נאם־יהוה את־החסד ואת־הרחמים (“for I have
withdrawn My favor from that people—declares YHWH—My kindness and compassion,”
Jer 16:5); and while his quality as עשה חסד is repeated (9:23; 32:18), this is
clearly inactive during the critical time of destruction. God’s mercy . . . for
his people is saved for prophecies of consolation to Israel (12:15; 30:18;
33:26), and it is depicted by means of the metaphor of a father’s relationship
to his son (31:20). God’s anguish and sorrow are given expression by means of rhetorical
questions in Jeremiah (e.g., 2:31-32) and in the prophetic passages that mix
complaint and accusation (e.g., 3:19-21; 8:4-7; 18:13-15) (See Fretheim, Suffering
of God, 115-26). Such expressions of divine sorrow do not appear in Ezekiel;
God’s sorrow is not referred to in the quotations within Jeremiah and Ezekiel
nor in the laments within Psalms and Lamentations.
With respect to will, Jeremiah’s
definition of the divine role in the time of the destruction of that ויהוה לא רצם
(“so YHWH has no pleasure in them,” 14:10, 12). More common are descriptions of
divine remorse, reversal of an initial plan and intention, expressed in the
phrase ניחם יהוה על (42:10) and in pleas within communal laments (Pss 90:13;
106:45) [4].
Footnotes for the Above (renumbered):
[1]
This planned evil action is thus the source of protest in Lam 2:17. זמם occurs thirteen
times in the Hebrew Bible; in sex of them God is the agent initiating
destructive deeds or restoration (also Zech 1:6; 8:14, 15). Of the nineteenth
occurrences of מזמה in the Hebrew Bible, on the three occurrences in Jeremiah
and in Job 42:2 refer to God as agent.
[2] The verb זכר (לא) occurs often in Jeremiah and in Ezekiel, where the people are accused of not remembering God (Jer 17:2; Ezek 6:9; 16:22, 43, 61, 63; 20:43; 21:28, 29; 23:19; 36:31; Lam 1:7, 9). Once, in an individual lament (Jer 20:9), the prophet raised the hypothetical option that he would not remember God, would not be his messenger.
[3]
To give some statistics: forty-seven of the fifty-four occurrences of the verb כעס
in the Hebrew Bible refer to the anger of God, and only seven use כעס to convey
a human reaction (as in 1 Sam 1:6). However, only four of the twenty-one
occurrences of the noun כעס refer to divine anger (1 Kgs 15:30; 21:22; 2 Kgs
23:26; Ps 85:5). The hiphil infinitive form להכעיס את-יהוה (as in 1 Kgs
14:9; 16:13) is common in Deuteronomistic compositions; see Weinfeld, Deuteronomy
and the Deuteronomic School, 340. The other occurrences of this construction
in Jeremiah are 11:17; 25:6, 6; 32:29, 30, 32; 44:3, 8. The verb קצף occurs
sixteen times as a divine action and the noun קצף appears twenty-seven times as
a divine emotion of fierce anger. The verb קצף does not appear in Jeremiah, but
the noun repeats four times in the book; and see Lam 5:22.
[4] ניחם
is the meaning “regretted” or “turned away from his initial intent” occurs in
Judg 2:18; 1 Sam 15:35; and more. Regret as a human quality occurs in Jer 8:6;
31:19; Ezek 14:22; PAN Ezek 32:31. In its second meaning, “to be appeased from
anger,” this verb only rarely occurs in reference to God. An exception is Ezek
5:13; the two meanings function together in a closed context in Ezek 14:22-23
and in Jer 31:13.
