of compassion for Egypt and Assyria (Isa. 19:19–25) and Nineveh (Jonah 3:10). Scripture reckons with the freedom of human will as well, beginning with God’s charge to the first human to “have dominion” in the earth (Gen. 1:28), and including the acknowledgment of the deuteronomist, the prophets, and Jesus himself of the possibility of repentance and the new life which results from the conscious decision of the human will to do an about-face and to set off in a new direction. Indeed, the argument
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