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appear in Arabic and Ethiopic. The word occurs in biblical Hebrew about 215 times and
in all periods.
Basically
means “to depart from something,” or “to leave.” This is the meaning
of the word in its first biblical appearance: "[For this cause] shall a man leave his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife …” (Gen. 2:24). A special nuance of the
word is “to leave in the lurch,” or to leave someone who is depending upon one’s
services. So Moses said to Hobab the Midianite (Kenite): “Leave us not [in the lurch] I
pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou
mayest be to us instead of eyes” (Num. 10:31).
The word also carries the meaning “forsake,” or “leave entirely.” Such passages
convey a note of finality or completeness. So Isaiah is to preach that “… the land that
thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings” (Isa. 7:16). In other places, the
abandonment is complete but not necessarily permanent. God says that Israel is “as a
woman forsaken and grieved in spirit.… For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but
with great mercies will I gather thee” (Isa. 54:6-7). In Akkadian, this word carries a
technical sense of “completely and permanently abandoned” or “divorced.” Isaiah
employs this sense in 62:4: “Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; … but thou shalt be
called [My delight is in her], and thy land [Married].…”
Another special use of the word is “to disregard advice”: “But he forsook the counsel
of the old men which they had given him …” (1 Kings 12:8).
A second emphasis of
is “to leave behind,” meaning to allow something to
remain while one leaves the scene. In Gen. 39:12, Joseph “left” his garment in the hand
of Potiphar’s wife and fled. The word may also refer to an intentional “turning over one’s
possessions to another’s trust,” or “leaving something in one’s control.” Potiphar “left all
that he had in Joseph’s hand” (Gen. 39:6).
In a somewhat different nuance, the word means to “let someone or something alone
with a problem”: “If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lying under his burden, and
wouldest forbear to help him …” (Exod. 23:5). Used figuratively,
means to “put
distance between” in a spiritual or intellectual sense: “Cease from anger, and forsake
wrath …” (Ps. 37:8).
The third emphasis of the word is “to be left over,” or “to take most of something and
leave the rest behind”: “And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather
every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them [over] for the poor and stranger: I am
the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:10).
Finally,
can mean “to let go” or “allow to leave.” The “stupid and senseless
men” are those who make no provision for the future; they die leaving (“allowing it to
go”) their wealth to others (Ps. 49:10). A different nuance occurs in Ruth 2:16, where the
verb means “to let something lie” on the ground.
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can also mean “to give up”: “He
that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them [gives
them up] shall have mercy” (Prov. 28:13), and the word can mean “to set free,” as in 2
Chron. 28:14: “So the armed men left the captives and the spoil before the princes and all
the congregation.”
*
can signify “let go,” or “make it leave.” Concerning evil,
Zophar remarks, “… [The wicked] forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth” (Job
20:13).