“Repentance” in the Old Testament:

In the OT there are two Hebrew words that are translated “repent” or its cognates. These are “נחם” (naw-kham') and “שׁוּב” (shoob). In the King James Version[1] “repent,” “repented,” etc. are found 46 times in 45 verses in the Old Testament. Please see Appendix A (Page 17) for the text of the complete list of verses.[2]

1. נחם - naw-kham' The Hebrew word is used 108 times in the OT and is translated, “comfort” 57 times, “repent” 41 (plus 2 more including the noun), “comforter” 9, and “ease” 1. It can mean “regret,” “be moved to pity,” “have compassion” and similar.

2. שׁוּב - shoob A common word in the OT, used over 1,000 times and is usually translated “turn,” “turn back,” “return” or similar.

There are Bible teachers who are of the persuasion that “repentance” means that we must “be sorry for our sin,” “turn from our sins to God” or something similar in order to become eternally saved. Some of these same teachers remind us that in the OT that the word used for repent, “shoob,” means to “turn” or to “return” as in turning from sin or from sin to God. This logic is presented to justify the belief that we need to repent of sin or turn from sin in order to be eternally saved.

Their statement is accurate in that the Hebrew word “שׁוּב” (shoob) is often correctly translated as “turn” or “return,”[3] but the overall claim itself is misleading. A very important point that is often neglected in this discussion is that the word “shoob” is only translated as “repent” three times[4] out of over one thousand times that it is used. The other forty-three times that “repent” is found, it is translated from the other Hebrew word used; “naw-kham',” which has a different meaning. This observation alone should cast some doubt on the unbiblical assumption that we must turn from sin or repent of sin in order to be saved. A second point that will be discussed later (See Appendix A - Page 17) is that out of the 46 times that repent is used in the OT, 37 times, or about 75% of the time it is speaking of God repenting or not repenting. Only about one-fourth of the time does it refer to man repenting. Of the six times that it refers to man repenting, none of the occurrences are in the context of acquiring eternal life. The fact that in most cases that it is God Himself repenting, should also indicate to us that the OT word does not mean to “turn from sin” or “be sorry for sin.”

The account in the book of Jonah about his ill-fated boat cruise and his exhortation to the Ninevites mentions repentance “נחם” (naw-kham') three times (Jonah 3:9, 10: 4:2),[5] but all three times it is referring to God Himself repenting about not destroying the people of the city.

In the NT Jesus tells us that the men of Ninevah also repented (Matt. 12:41). This word in the Greek is μετανοέω (met-an-o-eh'-o). This is the most common NT word for repent, and has as its basic meaning to be “a change of mind.” We will later see that it appears that some have put too much emphasis just on the etymology of the word while neglecting how the word is commonly used in the NT.

We have seen that the OT word for repent (here “נחם” - naw-kham') does not mean “turn from sin” as we see God “repenting.” The Jonah account does not mention the Ninevites repenting but it does say that “...God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not (Jonah 3:10). There is no mention of the Ninevites repenting as God did by definition of the OT word, but we are told by Jesus that they did repent as defined by the NT word, μετανοέω (met-an-o-eh'-o).

What we have recorded in Jonah that the Ninevites did do was “that they turned (שׁוּב - shoob) from their evil way.” There is no mention here of receiving eternal life but it is clear that the result of their “repentance” (Jesus’ statement) i.e. “turning from their evil way” effected temporal deliverance in that they did not physically perish under God’s judgment.

If we stick with the etymology of the NT word and reconcile it with the context, we might say that the Ninevites “changed their mind about their pattern of sin, judged it and corrected it.” This alleviated God’s judgment on them for their ongoing sin. We will soon find that many of the other NT occurrences of repent/repentance are saying much the same thing in their contexts. “Turning from sin” is a commonly found exhortation in both the OT and the NT but in the OT it is only rarely expressed by the common word for “repent” (naw-kham'),[6] and much more frequently expressed by using the common word for “turn;” (shoob).[7]

Before other “grace” people get too upset over this statement about repentance frequently being connected with turning from sin, please realize that this does not nullify nor pollute the “grace” message for eternal salvation found throughout the Bible. Why not? We posit and believe that we can establish that the Bible nowhere teaches that a person must “repent” in order to receive eternal life.”[8] This statement might get both some “grace” people and “faith-plus-works for salvation” folks concerned but more on this shortly.

[1] The King James Version (AKA Authorized Version) is used in this paper unless otherwise noted. We are not “KJV- only” but for reasons that we believe to be valid, we almost exclusively use this version. Please contact us for more information if you have questions on the subject of Bible translations.

[2] Appendix A (Page 17) is a complete list of verses using cognates of repent/repentance in the OT. Appendix B (Page 21) is the same for the NT. These two are intended for documentation and research and could be considered a “boring” read. Appendix C (Page 25) is a word study analysis of 2 Cor. 7:8-11 in reference to repentance. It is much shorter and is intended to be read for general information on the use of repentance in the NT.

[3] Number of times “shoob” is translated as:…return 391, ...again 248, turn 123, ...back 65, ...away 56, restore 39, bring 34, render 19, answer 18, recompense 8, recover 6, deliver 5, put 5, withdraw 5, requite 4, misc. 40; for a total of 1066 times.

Greek and Hebrew definitions in this paper are from the Online Bible Hebrew or Greek Lexicons unless otherwise noted.

[4] The three verses in which שׁוּב (shoob) is translated “repent” are:

1 Kings 8:47 “Yet if they shall bethink (shoob) themselves in the land whither they were carried captives, and repent (shoob) and make supplication unto thee in the land of them that carried them captives, saying, We have sinned, and have done perversely, we have committed wickedness;”

Ezekial 14:6 “Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, (shoob) and turn (shoob) yourselves from your idols; and turn (shoob) away your faces from all your abominations.

Ezekiel 18:30 “Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent (shoob) and turn (shoob) yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.

Please note that in each of these verses, “shoob” occurs at least twice. Perhaps part of the reason that the translators translated “shoob” as “repent” once in each of the verses is the tendency for them to not repeat the same word in the same context for the sake of refined-sounding English. It would sound kind of awkward to translate “shoob and shoob” as “turn and turn.” This observation and the fact that the word is almost always translated as another English word with a different meaning implies to me that “repent” might not be the best translation for that Hebrew word. (Shoob) is also found in 12 of the OT “repent - (naw-kham')” verses and is usually translated as “turn,” “return,” or similar). See Appendix A (Page 17).

This propensity to translate identical words differently in the same context has the potential to be misleading and can be found in other instances such as Matthew 16:25, 26: For whosoever will save his life (ψυχή - psoo-khay') shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life (ψυχή - psoo-khay') for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? (ψυχή - psoo-khay') or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (ψυχή - psoo-khay').

[5] God repented concerning the Ninevites (OT):

Jonah 3:9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?

Jonah 3:10. And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

Jonah 4:2. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.

The Ninevites repented (NT):

Matt. 12:41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

[6] The only OT verses that I could find that both contained “repent” and that had to do with turning from sin are the following: 1 Kings 8:47; Job 42:6, Jer. 8:6; Jer. 31:19; Eze. 14:6; 18:30. The two passages in Ezekiel translated repent from shoob, which actually means “turn.” These are also the only two of the above which are imperative or commands. The other four verses using naw-kham' are in the indicative mood and are only stating the action as occurring.

[7] A passage that comes to mind which is representative of this is Ezekiel, chapter 18. The following verses have to do with exhortations to turn from sin or else receive temporal judgment. In each verse, “turn” or “return” is translated from “shoob:” Verses 21; 23; 24; 26;27;28; 30; 32. It is noteworthy that in these instances that the Septuagint (Also known as the LXX, the 3rd. century BC translation of the Hebrew OT into Koine Greek) translates the Hebrew “shoob” into Greek as a compound of “στρέφω - stref'-o” (meaning to turn or return) and not as “μετανοέω - met-an-o-eh'-o” (meaning a change of mind).

[8] This assertion should not be construed to say that there are no cases where a person “repented” or even sorrowed for or turned from some sins and then believed in Jesus for eternal life, just that repentance is not given in Scripture as a requirement for receiving eternal life; belief in Jesus is (John 3:16; 6:47; Acts 16:31; et al). E. g. A person can read the Bible and believe in Jesus, he can go to church, hear a good evangelistic sermon and believe in Jesus or engage in other circumstances before or even contributing toward believing in Jesus, but the one Biblical requirement is “believe in Jesus.” There will be more explanation on this in NT portion of this study.