Hi Pastor John,
Does the word, “forsake”, in Psalm 27:10, mean to die?
Thanks,
Billy M
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No, Billy — at least from a purely grammatical viewpoint. That verb “forsake” is translated from a very common Hebrew word in the OT, aztav, which is used well over a hundred times. It’s dictionary meaning is simply to forsake, to leave, or even to loose. It’s poetic meaning, however, can certainly be “to die”, especially in a context such as Psalm 27:10: “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.”
In that verse, I think that atzav is, in fact, a reference to the death of the parents of the Psalmist. But then again, the one who wrote the Psalms (or the Son of God who inspired the Psalmist to write them) was such a despised man that he could have been speaking of his parents’ joining with those who despised him and, so, rejecting him as their son.
Pastor John