FORGET; FORGETFUL

for-get', for-get'-ful (shakhach; epilanthanomai): "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 (Deuteronomy 4:9,23,11; 6:12; Judges 3:7; 1 Samuel 12:9; Psalms 44:20, etc.). In an innocent or neutral, sometimes good, sense it is used in Genesis 27:45; Deuteronomy 24:19; Job 9:27; 11:16; 24:20; Psalms 102:4, etc. It is also used of God forgetting or not seeming to care (Psalms 9:12; 10:11-12; 13:1; 42:9; 77:9; Isaiah 49:15, etc.). To "forget" sometimes means to forsake (Psalms 45:10; 74:19, etc.).

In the New Testament epilanthanomai is used of simple forgetting (Matthew 16:5; Mark 8:14, etc.; in Luke 12:6 the sense of care is implied); Philippians 3:13, "forgetting the things which are behind," has the force of leaving behind. "Forgetful" in James 1:25 is epilesmone, the Revised Version (British and American) "a hearer that forgetteth." "Forgetfulness" Psalms 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" (2 Peter 3:8; similarly 2 Peter 3:5).

W. L. Walker

From the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Edited by James Orr, published in 1939 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.