Forbid

Forbid - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

FORBID', v.t. pret. forbad; pp. forbid, forbidden. Literally, to bid or command against. Hence,

1. To prohibit; to interdict; to command to forbear or not to do. The laws of God forbid us to swear. Good manners also forbid us to use profane language. All servile labor and idle amusements on the sabbath are forbidden.

2. To command not to enter; as, I have forbid him my house or presence. This phrase seems to be elliptical; to forbid from entering or approaching.

3. To oppose; to hinder; to obstruct. An impassable river forbids the approach of the army.

A blaze of glory that forbids the sight.

4. To accurse; to blast. Obs.

FORBID', v.i. To utter a prohibition; but in the intransitive form, there is always an ellipsis. I would go, but my state of health forbids, that is, forbids me to go, or my going.

FORBID','DEN, pp.

1. Prohibited; as the forbidden fruit.

2. Hindered; obstructed.

for-bid' (kala; koluo):

Occurs very seldom in the Old Testament except as the rendering of chalilah (see below); it is once the translation of kala', "to restrain" (Nu 11:28, "Joshua .... said My lord Moses forbid them"); twice of tsawah, "to command" (De 2:37, "and wheresoever Yahweh our God forbade us"; De 4:23, "Yahweh thy God hath forbidden thee," literally, "commanded"); once of lo', "not," the Revised Version (British and American) "commanded not to be done" (Le 5:17). In the phrases, "Yahweh forbid" (1Sa 24:6; 26:11; 1Ki 21:13), "God forbid" (Ge 44:7; Jos 22:29; 24:16; 1Sa 12:23; Job 27:5, etc.), "My God forbid it me" (1Ch 11:19), the word is chalilah, denoting profanation, or abhorrence (rendered, Ge 18:25 the King James Version, "that be far from thee"); the English Revised Version leaves the expressions unchanged; the American Standard Revised Version substitutes "far be it from me," "thee," etc., except in 1Sa 14:45; 20:2, where it is, "Far from it."

In the New Testament koluo, "to cut short," "restrain" is the word commonly translated "forbid" (Mt 19:14, "forbid them not," etc.); in Lu 6:29, the Revised Version (British and American) has "withhold not"; diakoluo, with a similar meaning, occurs in Mt 3:14, "John forbade him," the Revised Version (British and American) "would have hindered him"; akolutos, "uncut off" (Ac 28:31), is translated "none forbidding him." The phrase "God forbid" (me genoito, "let it not be," Lu 20:16; Ro 3:4, etc.) is retained by the Revised Version (British and American), with margin "Be it not so," except in Ga 6:14, where the text has "Far be it from me"; me genoito is one of the renderings of chalilah in Septuagint. "God forbid" also appears in Apocrypha ( /APC 1Macc 2:21, the Revised Version (British and American) "Heaven forbid," margin, Greek "may he be propitious," /APC 1Macc 9:10, the Revised Version (British and American) "Let it not be").

W. L. Walker