Steering between these two poles, how does one move from metaphor phor to essential definition? By interpreting “along the metaphorical grain” and not contrary to it, by “following the thrust of the anal- ogy.”18 If one moves against the natural implication of the metaphor, one is misinterpreting it. At the same time, while the metaphor primarily generates insight into the divine reality at the basic thrust of the analogy, it also does so more indirectly at those points where it is discontinuous with the reality which is God.

Terence E. Frethheim. The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective (Overtures to Biblical Theology) (Kindle Locations 195-198). Kindle Edition.