Jeremias 18
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Jeremias 18:10
God, who does not repent, is said to repent according to the Scripture.… Concerning the repentance of God, we are demanded to defend ourselves. To repent seems to be culpable and unworthy not only of God but also of the wise person. For I cannot conceive of a wise person repenting. Rather, when a person repents, supposing the customary use of the word, he repents for not having decided to be good. But God, who knows in advance what happens in the future, is unable not to have decided to be good and to repent for this. How, then, has the Scripture brought forth this phrase that says, "I will repent"?… Whenever the Scriptures speak theologically about God in relation to himself and do not involve his plan for human matters, they say that he is "not as a human." … But whenever the divine plan involves human matters, it carries the human intellect and manners and way of speaking. If we are talking with a two-year-old child, we speak inarticulately because of the child.… Something of this sort also seems to me the case with God, whenever he manages the race of humankind and especially those still infants.… If any of us should hear those who talk to children, will he say that this old person has become senseless, this man has forgotten his beard, the age of a person? Or is it granted that out of consideration when he converses with the child he does not speak in an elderly or adult language but in a childlike language? — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18:6.2-4
Jeremias 18:10
Since we really do repent, when he talks with us who repent God says, "I repent," and when he threatens us, he does not pretend to know in advance, but he threatens as one speaking to babes. He does not pretend that he knows all things before their generation, but as one who, so to speak, plays the part of a babe, he pretends not to know the future. And he threatens the nation on account of its sins and says, "If the nation repents, I will repent." O God, when you were threatening, did you not know in advance whether the nation will or will not repent? When you were promising, did you not know whether the person or the nation to whom the word is directed does not remain worthy of the promises? Yes, of course, but he pretends. — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 18:6.5