BOOK 4
A Prayer by Moses, the man of God.
1Lord, you have been our dwelling place for all generations.
2Before the mountains were born,
before you had formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.
3You turn man to destruction, saying,
“Return, you children of men.”
4For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past,
like a watch in the night.
5You sweep them away as they sleep.
In the morning they sprout like new grass.
6In the morning it sprouts and springs up.
By evening, it is withered and dry.
7For we are consumed in your anger.
We are troubled in your wrath.
8You have set our iniquities before you,
our secret sins in the light of your presence.
9For all our days have passed away in your wrath.
We bring our years to an end as a sigh.
10The days of our years are seventy,
or even by reason of strength eighty years;
yet their pride is but labor and sorrow,
for it passes quickly, and we fly away.
11Who knows the power of your anger,
your wrath according to the fear that is due to you?
12So teach us to count our days,
that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
13Relent, Yahweh!
How long?
Have compassion on your servants!
14Satisfy us in the morning with your loving kindness,
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
15Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,
for as many years as we have seen evil.
16Let your work appear to your servants,
your glory to their children.
17Let the favor of the Lord our God be on us.
Establish the work of our hands for us.
Yes, establish the work of our hands.
Genesis 6:6 records God’s response to the rapidly growing problem of sin in the world He had created. The main problem of this verse has to do with the first word (nḥm), often translated “The LORD was sorry that He had made man” (ESV, NASB, NRSV). Most notably, the King James Version rendered this verse, “And it repented the LORD that he had made man,” making it sound as though God had suddenly realized that creating the world had been a bad idea.
From the broader Semitic context, the literal sense of this verbal root in Arabic (nḥ/ḫm) refers to the deep gasp of a horse.1In Christian Palestinian Aramaic the same root expresses remorse or regret, apparently a more figurative development of the former.2 In Syriac nḥm means “to raise (the dead), raise (to life)” wherein it denotes a change of state from death to life.3 This last meaning relates to the biblical usage where God is said to change his course of action in response to humankind.
In the Old Testament this particular form of the verbal root nḥm is most usually used of God in his response to humanity, highlighting the emotional side of His actions. In these contexts, God emotionally responds to the actions of men in a way that is consistent with His own nature and should not be thought of as God simply changing His mind. Instead, God responds in accordance with His revealed will, depending on the circumstances which warrant divine attention. Consequently, this response does not necessitate judgment (as in Gen 6:6) but can also result in restored favor, as when God relents from destroying the people of Israel in light of Moses’ entreaty on their behalf (Exod 32:14; cf. Ps 90:13).
William Lane, Arabic-English Dictionary (London: Willams and Norgate, 1863), 3029; cf. Hans Wehr, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic (Spoken Language Services, 1976), 948. ↩︎
Michael Sokoloff, Dictionary of Jewish Palestinian Aramaic (Baltimore: John’s Hopkins University Press, 2003), 346a. ↩︎
J. Payne Smith, A Compendious Syriac Dictionary (Oxford, 1902), 335. ↩︎