UV introduces ' forfeit' into Dt 22' ' Thou slialt not sow thy vineyard with two kinds of seed ; lest the wliole Iruit be forfeited ' (u'-pn, AV ' defiled,' KVm ' consecrated ' ; Uriver, ' lit. become holtj or .inrrrd, i.e. be forfeited In the sanctuary'); Mt 10-", .Mk 8^ 'forfeit his life' {{nuiuSii T^)l' i'vxv" auTou, AV ' lose his own sotil ') ;
and Lk 9^ 'and lose or forfeit his own self {iavrir 5i diroX^ffds ■!) fTj/iicjflc/s, AV 'he cast away'). In the remaining occurrences of frj^ioCv (1 Co 3'*, 2 Co 7", Ph 38), RV renders ' eufler loss.'
J. Ha.stincs. FORGE, FORGER.— Forge and fabricate come both from Lat. fahricare, the former through the Old F'rench furgier, the latter directly. To ' forge ' is therefore to make or shape, aa Ex 4", Wye. (1382), ' Who made the mouth of man, or who forgide (1388 'made') the dowmbe and the deef, the seer and the bljnde ? ' ; Tindale, ]Vor/cs (ed. RusseU, 1831), i. 93, 'The power of God . . . altereth him, changeth him clean, fashioneth and forgeth him anew.' It is espe- cially used of shaping metals by fire and hammer ; and in this sense RV uses the subst. forger, Gn 4** ' Tubal-cain, the forger of every cutting in- strument of brass and iron ' (iyirrbj va'y, AV ' an instructer [m. ' whetter '] of every artificer in brass and iron'; so RVm). The passage is difficult, perhaps corrupt ; it is fully discussed in Dillmann and in Spurrell. But in AV ' forge ' and ' forger ' are used only in the metaphorical sense of framing or inventing lies : Job 13* ' ye are forgers of lies ' (n|T^'"'?;b) ; Ps 1 19°^ ' The proud have forged a lie against me ' {^ps '^i; sVra) ; and Sir 5P 'lips that forge lies' (ipya^oiiivui' ^eCSos). The Geneva tr. of Lk 19' is, ' If I have taken from any men by forged cauillation, I restore h ym fouie folde.' And Shaks. Mich. II. IV. i. 40, gives—
• If thou deny*st it twenty times, thou liest ; And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart, Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.
J. Hastings. FORGETFULNESS.— Forgetful in the sense of heedless, neglectful, is perhaps still in use collo- quially, but in literary English we should not now say as AV after Tindale in He 13^ ' Bo not forgetful to entertain strangers' (t^s (ptXo^efta! fii} iin\av86.ve<r8i, KV ' Forget not to sliow love unto strangers'). 'A forgetful hearer' (Ja 1") is more modern, hut RV prefers ' a hearer that forgetteth ' (d/cpoaTTjs i-nX-qa/j.oi'ijs, lit. ' a hearer of forgetful- ness,' as in 2* 'judges of evil thoughts' = evil- thoughted judges').
In Sir 23'* the meaning is again, probably, he^dUss and so unmannerly, ' Remeuiber thy father and thy mother, when thou eittest amon-^ great men. lie not torgetful before them, and so thou by tny custom become a fool ' (tt/, vari iT.Aal^j). But the passage is obscure. Wyolif haa it, ' Lest perauenture Uod forgete Ihee in the sighte of hem,' aft«r Vuig. A'e forU uOliviacatur U Deujt in cow^jj'^ctH iUt*rum ; and he (or the Vulg.) is followed by Kogers", Co\ erdale's, the Bishops", and the Douay versions ; the Geneva has ' lest thou be forgotten in their sight.' RV slightly alters the construction of the sentence, and ao get* a new meaning —
• Remember thy father and thy mother.
For thou sittest in the midst of great men ;
That thou be not forgetful before them,
And become a fool by thy custom.' The great men are presumably the father and mother; If to, 'great ones' would have been better; the Gr. is simply «ra >ii»o, ij,iy,rri>ait. Ball, in QPB, follows Fritzsche and AV, and explains, ' Low language reflects upon one's upbringing.'
Forgetfulness occurs in Ps 88" 'Shall thy wonders he known in the dark? and thy right- eousness in the land of forgetfulness?' (.i;;') \~^^), where ' forgetfulness' is not the condition of losing all recollection, but of bein" forgotten, oblivion, — a meaning which Bradley (Oxf. Eng. Diet.) marks as probably obsolete. 'The condition of losing recollection might be represented as a blessed one, OS in Shaks. II Uennj IV. UI. i. 8—
' O sleep ! O gentle sleep t Nature's soft nurse, how have! frighted thee. That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down. And 8t*ep my senses in forgetfulness?'
But the Psalmist's thought is rather as in Norton (1501), Calvin's In.it. iv. xviii. 704, 'This Masee
B6
FOKGIVEXESS
FOEGIVENESS
. stianiefnlly . . . putteth his death in forget- fulnesse ' ; and Gray, hlegy, 1. 85 —
• For who, to dumb Forpetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e'er resifn^ed. Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day. Nor cast one longing ling'ring look behind?'
This is the meaning also of Wis 17* ' they were scattered under a dark vail of forgetfulness ' {d06776t \-fjdi)^ TTapcLKaXt'/x/xaTtf Vulg. tenehroso ob- livionis velamento') ; but in 14^ 16", Sir 11*, the word is used in its usual sense of a tendency to forget. J. Hastings.
FORGIVENESS In OT three words especially
are used to express the idea of forgiveness— "i?? * 'cover' or 'pacify'; n'pp (root meaning unknown) ; t^Vi 'lift up or 'away.' AV and RV render all three usually ' forgive,' sometimes 'pardon.' The first and second are always used of divine forgive- ness—the first, rarely (I^a 1%^ Jer 18", Dt 2ie, 2 Ch 30"), the second, frequently (e.g. 1 K 8*"-, Lv 4-"-) ; the third is in common use of ordinary human forgiveness as well (e.g. Gn 50", Ex 10", 1 S 15^ 25^). In nearly all instances the context implies repentance for the offence, and an inten- tion to avoid a repetition of it, as a condition of the forgiveness ; and as a result of it, that the offender is placed again in the position which he occupied before the offence, in the old covenant relation to God, or in the same friendly relation as before to the person affected. Under the sacri- ficial system the repentance and the amends are represented by the sacrifice which is ottered by the offender through the priest (see Oehler, 'theology of the OT, § 139) ; but in other cases in the Psalms and the Prophets there is no Buggestion of more than acknowledgment of sin, repentance, and that intention of amendment which is expressed by the phrase 'turning to the Lord.' Forgiveness is a free act on the part of God or of man ; it restores the offender to the state in which there is no obstacle to his communion with him from wliom he has been alienated ; it gives peace of mind (Ps 32), a consciousness of the divine mercy (Ps 103); it removes the fear of punishment and quickens love (2S 121^, Job 33^8, Ps 103^). Nor is it only an individual matter ; the whole nation may be alienated from God through neglect of his will, and may by forgiveness be restored, — such is the burden of many a prophetic exhortation.