If the bible says that God repented of a certain thought or act, then God did do so. It just might not mean what the average human means by the same thing.
My interpretation, however, does not change the clear words of scripture.
Prior to the flood, God did repent that He had made man because that is what scripture said He did. The interpretation of what that means must be weighed against God's omnipotence and omniscience as elucidated elsewhere in scripture.
Num 23:19 "God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
There is no wiggle room for interpretation. The scriptures clearly says God does not repent. To say He does is to ascribe man-made characteristics to Him, according to the scripture.
Yes, there are other places where God says, “I repent” such as:
Jer 26:3 'Perhaps they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way, that I may repent of the calamity which I am planning to do to them because of the evil of their deeds.'
We find out later that Micah had already prophesied their destruction in the days of Hezekiah.
Jer 26:17-18 Then some of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying, “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah; and he spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, 'Thus the LORD of hosts has said, "Zion will be plowed as a field, And Jerusalem will become ruins, And the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest."'
God knew they wouldn’t repent so God knew He wouldn't repent. Micah told them the people that they were not going to repent way before Jeremiah set foot into town. God was not surprised.
Funny, but as I study more and get older (not in that order) I've come to need less choices and less adjectives and less argument to support what I consider to be the Biblical truth of God's total, complete, profound, black-and-white, unerring Predestinating hand in all His creation.
Every healthy baby born is by His specific will. Every battered body that washes ashore in Sumatra is by His will. Every punchline applauded is by His will. Every period at the end of every sentence is by His will. Because if I've been saved by God's grace through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ alone, which is the greatest event in all eternity, then how numbered everything else must be.