Exodus 32:14 - Exposition

The Lord repented of the evil . Changes of purpose are, of course, attributed to God by an "economy," or accommodation of the truth to human modes of speech and conception. "God is not a man that he should repent." He "knows the end from the beginning." When he threatened to destroy Israel, he knew that he would spare; but, as he communicated to Moses, first, his anger, and then, at a later period, his intention to spare, he is said to have "repented." The expression is an anthropomorphic one, like so many others, on which we have already commented. (See the comment on Exodus 2:24 , Exodus 2:25 ; Exodus 3:7 , Exodus 3:8 ; Exodus 31:17 ; etc.)