Meaning
"Forget" is to fail to hold in mind, and the forgetfulness may be either innocent or blameworthy. In the Old Testament the word is most frequently used as translation of shakhach in a blameworthy sense: to forget the covenant, the law, Yahweh their God (Deu 4:9, Deu 4:23, Deu 4:11, Deu 6:12, Jdg 3:7, 1Sa 12:9, Psa 44:20, etc.). In an innocent or neutral, sometimes good, sense it is used in Gen 27:45, Deu 24:19, Job 9:27, Job 11:16, Job 24:20, Psa 102:4, etc. It is also used of God forgetting or not seeming to care (Psa 9:12, Psa 10:11, Psa 10:12, Psa 13:1, Psa 42:9, Psa 77:9, Isa 49:15, etc.). To "forget" sometimes means to forsake (Psa 45:10, Psa 74:19, etc.).
In the New Testament epilanthanomai is used of simple forgetting (Mat 16:5, Mar 8:14, etc.; in Lu 12:6 the sense of care is implied); Php 3:13, "forgetting the things which are behind," has the force of leaving behind. "Forgetful" in Jas 1:25 is epilesmone, the Revised Version (British and American) "a hearer that forgetteth." "Forgetfulness" Ps 88:12, "the land of forgetfulness," is a synonym for Sheol, where all forget and are forgotten. the Revised Version (British and American) has "forget not" for "be ignorant of" (2Pe 3:8; similarly 2Pe 3:5).
W. L. Walker
