וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם (way·yin·nā·ḥem) in Jonah 3:10: Conjunctive waw | Verb - Nifal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם (way·yin·nā·ḥem) in Jonah 3:10
Source Word
At Jonah 3:10, the source token וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם is H5162, Conj-w | V-Nifal-ConsecImperf-3ms. The BSB+ word table row therefore anchors this guide.
How The Form Affects Interpretation
Relented communicates the changed action toward Nineveh without suggesting that God confessed sin. Nineveh's turn from evil receives real mercy: the threatened disaster is not carried out, revealing the compassion Jonah resents.
How To Communicate It
Explain relented as a change in the announced course of action toward repentant Nineveh, while preserving God's moral consistency.
What Not To Say
- Grammatical form should serve context, not override it.
- Do not use the Nifal stem to claim that God repented of wrongdoing or that every warning is an unconditional prediction.
- The verb can describe regret, comfort, or relenting; the explicit object disaster and the city's turn define the sense here.
- Read relented within Jonah 3:10 as this H5162 occurrence; broader theology requires the passage.
What Does The Label Mean?
Hebrew-verb
Verb
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Nifal - Consecutive imperfect - third person masculine singular
Nifal
ConsecImperf
Third
Masculine
Singular
Not applicable
Conjunction w
None
The consecutive-imperfect advances from God seeing their changed actions to his responsive withholding of judgment.
The third masculine singular Nifal form takes God as subject and is followed by the disaster from which he relents.
What The Form Does In This Verse
God as the one withholding the announced disaster
God's seeing that Nineveh turned from its evil way
The Nifal narrative verb presents God relenting from carrying out the threatened disaster after the city's turn.
The form does not say God discovered a moral error, changed character, or became indifferent to Nineveh's evil.
How Much The Form Matters Here
High: Nineveh's turn from evil receives real mercy: the threatened disaster is not carried out, revealing the compassion Jonah resents.
The third masculine singular Nifal form takes God as subject and is followed by the disaster from which he relents.. The Nifal narrative verb presents God relenting from carrying out the threatened disaster after the city's turn.. Attached to God as the one withholding the announced disaster. Governed by God's seeing that Nineveh turned from its evil way. The form does not say God discovered a moral error, changed character, or became indifferent to Nineveh's evil.
Does He relented mean God admitted that threatening Nineveh was wrong? No. God withholds the threatened disaster when the city turns, acting consistently with the warning's moral purpose and his mercy.
Direct: Relented communicates the changed action toward Nineveh without suggesting that God confessed sin.
The verb can describe regret, comfort, or relenting; the explicit object disaster and the city's turn define the sense here. The verse describes a genuine response in history while leaving broader questions about divine knowledge to the whole canon.
Relenting means moral repentance by God: The object is the threatened disaster, not a sin God committed; his response honors both justice and mercy. narrative response proves divine ignorance: The sequence presents God's real engagement with Nineveh but does not state that he lacked foreknowledge.
How The Interpretation Is Derived
At Jonah 3:10, the source token וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם is H5162, Conj-w | V-Nifal-ConsecImperf-3ms. The BSB+ word table row therefore anchors this guide.
נָחַם is the lemma behind relented here. Within Jonah 3:10, H5162 retains this exact lexical identity.
The third masculine singular Nifal form takes God as subject and is followed by the disaster from which he relents.
Nineveh's turn from evil receives real mercy: the threatened disaster is not carried out, revealing the compassion Jonah resents.
Divine relenting in this warning context displays consistent mercy toward repentance, not instability in God's holy character.
Explain relented as a change in the announced course of action toward repentant Nineveh, while preserving God's moral consistency.
Do not use the Nifal stem to claim that God repented of wrongdoing or that every warning is an unconditional prediction.