[gjsman-1000]

There's a difference between prediction and commanding.

It's like when a father tells his daughter she'll get married and have three sweet little children. That doesn't mean it's immediately set in stone and she's forced to.

[joshgrib]

I can agree with that, but as far as we see in the text it is a command - she's never told she has another option and we as the readers aren't given any indication that she thinks there is. I get that there's a charitable interpretation here if you look for it but I'm trying to just go based on what it says in the book

[krapp]

At least we can all agree YHWH was a bit more more polite about it than, say, Zeus would have been.