It grieves me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he has turned back from following me, and has not performed my commandments.
And it grieved Samuel; and he cried unto the LORD all night.
All Commentaries on 1 Samuel 15:11 Go To 1 Samuel 15
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Again, there are some things which are praiseworthy in people but cannot be present in God, such as shame, which is a prominent trapping of the state of sin, as is the fear of God. For not only in the Old Testament books is it praised, but the apostle also says, “perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” none of which is to be found in God. Therefore, just as certain praiseworthy human qualities are not rightly predicated of God, so also are certain contemptible human qualities properly said to be in God, not as they are found in people but only in a very different manner and for different reasons. For shortly after the Lord had said to Samuel, “I repent that I have made Saul king,” Samuel himself said of God to Saul: “He is not like a man, that he should repent.” This clearly demonstrates that even though God said “I repent,” it is not to be taken according to the human sense, as we have already argued at length.
