Genesis 6:5-6 and other verses where God "repents" are taken by skeptics and Open Theists to suggest a non-omniscient God. However, Christians have historically understood such language as divine condescension (anthropopathism) — speaking of God in human terms so we might comprehend. Moreover, it is possible to grieve over something even if we know that it is going to happen.

Furthermore, Pilch and Malina in the Handbook of Biblical Social Values note the emphasis in the Biblical world on dramatic orientation as a point of honor. To be expressive in word and deed was to "gain, maintain, and enhance personal and group honor." Expressions of eloquence, which involve exaggeration and over-assertion, may at times "not [be] intended to be taken seriously but are made solely for effect and are heartily appreciated and applauded by an audience that enjoys such eloquence when it hears it." Free and unrestrained expression of emotion was normal and acceptable. To put it in modern terms, some of this functions as a vivid communicative device — not implying a "real" change or emotional instability in God.

Skeptics sometimes argue that God's decision to send the Flood in Genesis 6:5 reveals an unjust deity, claiming that human beings should not be blamed for their evil since God created them. However, blaming the Creator for the free moral decisions and corrupt actions of human beings denies personal responsibility. The philosophical defense of human free will, and the Orthodox understanding of synergism, demonstrates that moral agents are accountable for their own choices and that God respects human freedom, even when humanity turns away from the source of life.