Down The Rabbit Hole—Again

“I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5 NASB

Forsake – This verse in Hebrews is really a modified quotation from a verse in Deuteronomy 31:6. The passage in Deuteronomy reads eemach lo yarpeka velo ya’azveka (He will not fail you, nor forsake you). The promise is very old. It was given to all those who were to enter the Land. It was given to all those who would enter the Land, represented in the ones who actually crossed the Jordan. It was given to all who would become part of Israel. Therefore, it is given to us.

The Hebrew word for “forsake” is ‘azav. ‘Azav has a strange etymology. It is derived from two roots, one which means “to leave, to abandon, to forsake” (cf. Genesis 44:22 and Genesis 2:24), and another which means “to restore or repair” (Nehemiah 3:8). In this first meaning, ‘azav can be quite a condemnation. Israel forsakes YHWH, a theme that occurs over and over in Scripture. But how can the same word also mean “to repair or restore”? Let’s consider the pictograph. Ayin-Zayin-Bet paints the scene “to experience being cut off from the house.” ‘azav means loss of family, security and covenant. To forsake is to be put at ultimate risk. But this has a double edge. A man must cut himself off from prior familial responsibilities and prior household safety when he attaches himself to his wife, his ‘ezer kenegdo. This act of forsaking establishes a new place of security, of covenant commitment. While it cuts one tie, it cements another. It is abandoning and restoring at one and the same time. So the Tanakh tells us that forsaking idolatry is, at the same time, restoring covenant with YHWH.

The translation of this promise into Greek yields further insight. The Greek word is a combination of three separate words: en meaning “a place,” kata meaning “down” – for emphasis – and leipo meaning “to leave behind.” Therefore, we get egkataleipo – left down in a place. The full sense is “to abandon by leaving behind in some place.” Now we can see that the verse really emphasizes the same idea twice because deserting and forsaking both mean abandoning in some place. God is very clear about this. He wants us to see how important His promise is so He doubles it up. He will never, ever quit on us, leave us down in the dumps, abandon us to some awful place. He is not going away, no matter what we might feel. From the time of Moses to the end of the New Testament, the promise is the same – you can count on Me! I am with you!

Yeshua uses this word on the cross. “Why have you forsaken me?” But Yeshua’s declaration points us toward a psalm of vindication, not a statement of abandonment. If God promises never to leave His people, why do we think He left His son? The antonym helps us see the strength of this promise. The opposite of “forsake” is “to hold fast, to seize and retain” (in the Greek – krateo). God is just not going to let go. Ever!

Topical Index: egkataleipo, ‘azav, forsake, abandon, cut off, Deuteronomy 31:6, Hebrews 13:5