The commentators generally regard the
repentance here ascribed to God as a mere change in his dealing with man. It is
very true that man’s fall necessitated a complete change in God’s treatment of
him. But the connection here evidently requires that repent be taken in one of
its other meanings; namely, that of regret or sorrow. God sorrowed that he had
created man, and he grieved himself (the form of the verb being reflexive); he
grieved himself over man’s ingratitude and disobedience, and therefore
immediately devised means for his restoration, and for limiting, as far as possible,
the extent and influence of his rebellion. But while God’s grief over the fall
of man was genuine and deep, inconceivably so to us, we are not by any means to
understand that he grieved over the introduction of intelligent beings into the
vast solitude of infinite space. The orders and verities of his accountable
creatures are doubtless numerous, and, it may be, constantly increasing. God
did not, therefore, grieve over the creation of his countless, rejoicing,
unfallen worlds; but over man his grief was too great for finite conception. (Lorenzo
McCabe, The Foreknowledge of God AND Cognate Themes IN Theology and Philosophy,
repr. Two Books on Open Theism: Divine Nescience and Future Contingencies a
Necessity AND The Foreknowledge of God AND Cognate Themes IN Theology and
Philosophy, ed. Christopher Fisher [2024], 551)
