Leave, abandon, forsake: azav, verb (Strong’s 5800)
Root: עָזַב
Sounds like: ah’zahv
Azav is usually translated as either the verb to forsake, to abandon, or to leave. It’s leaving behind something or someone. The first time the word is used in the Bible, it was about leaving someone for someone else:
Genesis 2:23-24
Then the man said,
“At last this is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man shall leave [ya-a’zav יַֽעֲזָב] his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
In English there is a significant difference between leaving and abandoning. Abandonment usually has strong negative connotations associated with it. Sometimes azav is just simply leaving. For example, David spoke of his eyesight leaving him:
Psalm 38:10
[David:] My heart throbs, my strength fails me; and the light of my eyes, even that has left me [a’zavani עֲזָבַ֣נִי].
In Proverbs we are reminded not to leave our good characteristics behind:
Proverbs 3:3
Do not let kindness and truth leave you [ya-az’vuka יַעַ֫זְבֻ֥ךָ]; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
Please God, do not leave me!
For many of us, to be left behind is a frightening concept. Fear of abandonment is a legitimate human emotion. A repeated prayer throughout the Bible, was calling on YHWH to not abandon them:
Psalm 27:7-10
[David:] Hear, YHWH, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, YHWH, I shall seek ”
Do not hide Your face from me, do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not abandon me and do not forsake me [ta-az’veni תַּֽ֝עַזְבֵ֗נִי], God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have left me [a’zavuni עֲזָב֑וּנִי], but YHWH will take me up.
Psalm 71:9-12, 17-19
Do not cast me away at the time of my old age; do not abandon me [ta-az’veni תַּעַזְבֵֽנִי] when my strength fails. For my enemies have spoken against me; and those who watch for my life have consulted together, saying, “God has abandoned him [a’za’voh עֲזָב֑וֹ]; pursue and seize him, for there is no one to save him.”
God, do not be far from me; my God, hurry to my aid!…
…God, You have taught me from my youth, and I still declare Your wondrous deeds. And even when I am old and gray, God, do not abandon me [ta-az’veni תַּעַ֫זְבֵ֥נִי], until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come.
For Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens, You who have done great things; God, who is like You?
1 Kings 8:57
[Solomon:] “May YHWH our God be with us, as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us [al ya-az’venu אַל-יַעַזְבֵנוּ] nor forsake us”.
In the phrase, “may He not leave us nor forsake us” we come across the synonym for azav. It is natash (Strong’s 5203). To leave and to forsake or abandon are often paired together. It emphasises the point. God will not leave us; He will not disappear from our lives.
Psalm 22:1-2
[David:] My God, my God, why have You forsaken left me [a’zav’tani עֲזַבְתָּ֑נִי]? Far from my help are the words of my groaning. My God, I cry out by day, but You do not answer; and by night, but I have no rest.”
David felt like God had slipped away from him. He couldn’t feel God’s presence; he felt utterly alone. This was the Davidic Psalm that Yeshua quoted while he suffered on the cross…
“My God, my God, why have you left me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)
Why can’t I see Your face? Why can’t I feel Your Presence? Why have you left me alone to feel the weight of the world’s sin?
Yeshua knew that God had not abandoned him, but at that moment, when He felt the crushing weight of sin, it was like He could feel all the doubt in the world… all the times when humans, across the centuries, gave up on God… accused Him of not caring… being absent in their suffering. Yeshua felt it all and called out the same, crushing, question: why, YHWH, have you left me.
YHWH: “You Abandoned Me!”
God never abandoned humanity, but often they have abandoned Him. It wasn’t always a conscious choice to leave God behind. It was sometimes a gradual abandonment. They started by abandoning God’s laws:
2 Kings 17:16-18 (see also 1 Kings 18:18)
And they abandoned [wai-ya-az’vu וַיַּעַזְב֗וּ] all the commandments of YHWH their God and made for themselves cast metal images: two calves. And they made an Asherah, and worshiped all the heavenly lights, and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and they practiced divination and interpreting omens, and gave themselves over to do evil in the sight of YHWH, provoking Him. So YHWH was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His sight; no one was left except the tribe of Judah.
The text often indicated that YHWH abandoned His people only in response to them abandoning Him first.
Jeremiah 2:13, 17-19 (see also Deut 28:20)
“For My people have committed two evils:
They have abandoned Me [az’vu עָזְב֜וּ], the fountain of living waters, to carve out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that do not hold water…
…Have you not done this to yourself by your abandoning [az’vek עָזְבֵךְ֙] YHWH your God when He led you in the way? But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt, except to drink the waters of the Nile? Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria, except to drink the waters of the Euphrates River?
Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostasies will punish you; know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter for you to abandon [az’vek עָזְבֵ֖ךְ] YHWH your God, and the fear of Me is not in you,” declares the Lord YHWH of armies.
The people abandoned God’s laws and, as a result, abandoned the covenant partnership between YHWH and His people:
Deuteronomy 29:24-28
All the nations will say, ‘Why has YHWH done all this to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned [az’vu עָֽזְב֔וּ] the covenant of YHWH, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. And they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they have not known and whom He had not assigned to them. Therefore, the anger of YHWH burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and YHWH uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and in great wrath, and hurled them into another land, as it is this day.’
They abandoned the marriage covenant between themselves and YHWH, and instituted the great divorce. It was a separation of the most beautiful relationship… a relationship between the Creator and the creation.
Jeremiah 22:8-9 (see also 1 Kings 19:10,14)
“Many nations will pass by this city; and they will say to one another, ‘Why has YHWH done this to this great city?’ Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned [az’vu et b’rit עָזְבוּ אֶת־בְּרִית] the covenant of YHWH their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’”
This was all about abandoning YHWH for foreign idols which was the sin repeated again and again throughout the scriptures:
Judges 2:13
They abandoned YHWH [wai-ya-az’vu וַיַּעַזְב֖וּ] and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.
And they didn’t just switch allegiance, they left YHWH and instead followed multiple gods from multiple nations:
1 King 11:33
[YHWH:] …they have abandoned [a’zavuni עֲזָב֗וּנִי] Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon; and they have not walked in My ways, doing what is right in My sight and keeping My statutes and My ordinances, as his father David did.
They also turned to the gods of Egypt:
Ezekiel 20:7-8a
And I said to them, ‘Throw away, each of you, the detestable things of his eyes, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am YHWH your God.’ But they rebelled against Me and were not willing to listen to Me; they did not throw away, each of them, the detestable things of their eyes, nor did they abandon [azavu עָזָ֑בוּ] the idols of Egypt.
The result?… YHWH left them to their own desires. If they wanted to follow the gods of the nations, they would be subject to the gods of the nations:
2 Chronicles 12:1-8
When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, he and all Israel with him abandoned the Law of YHWH. And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to YHWH, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem with 1,200 chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were innumerable: the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. And he captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what YHWH says: ‘You have abandoned Me [a’zav’tem עֲזַבְתֶּ֣ם], so I also have abandoned you [a’zav’ti עָזַ֥בְתִּי] to Shishak.’” So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “YHWH is righteous.”
When YHWH saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of YHWH came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them; and I will grant them a little deliverance, and My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak. But they will become his slaves, so that they may learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”
You left Me for Shishak, so I left you to Shishak. When they abandoned YHWH and worshiped the gods of their neighbours, they became the servants of those neighbours:
Jeremiah 5:19
And it shall come about when they say, ‘Why has YHWH our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Just as you have abandoned Me [a’zav’tem עֲזַבְתֶּ֤ם] and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
By aligning with the gods of the nations, they could not be saved from God’s wrath which was reserved for the powers and principalities of this world. The prophetess Huldah shared the words of YHWH:
2 Kings 22:16-17
[Huldah:] “This is what YHWH says: ‘Behold, I am going to bring disaster on this place and on its inhabitants, all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read. Since they have abandoned Me [a’zavuni עֲזָב֗וּנִי] and have burned incense to other gods so that they may provoke Me to anger with all the work of their hands, My wrath burns against this place, and it shall not be quenched.’”
Jeremiah shared a similar message from God:
Jeremiah 19:3b-6 (see also Jeremiah 16:9-12)
This is what YHWH of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold I am going to bring a disaster upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. Since they have abandoned Me [a’zavuni עֲזָבֻ֗נִי] and have made this place foreign, and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and since they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I did not command nor speak of, nor did it ever enter My mind; therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares YHWH, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter.”
This was, in fact, the repeated message by almost all of the prophets from this time. The people abandoned YHWH and YHWH respected their decision and clumped them together with the enemies of YHWH, and so they received the same treatment. As my husband used to say, they made their own bed and they would have to lie in it. They had new gods now, and YHWH would leave them be, at their own peril:
Judges 10:13-14 (see also 1 Kings 9:8-9)
[YHWH:] “Yet you abandoned Me [a’zav’tem עֲזַבְתֶּ֣ם] and served other gods; therefore I will no longer save you. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen; let them save you in the time of your distress.”
Jonah, in his distress as he lived in the belly of the beast, remembered his allegiance to YHWH:
Jonah 2:7-9
“While I was fainting away, I remembered YHWH, and my prayer came to You, into Your holy temple.
‘Those who are followers of worthless idols abandon [ya-a’zovu יַעֲזֹֽבוּ] their loyal love (loving devotion/lovingkindness), but I will sacrifice to You with a voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from YHWH.’”
Then YHWH commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.
In this moment, Jonah claimed his loyalty to YHWH and YHWH immediately responded and saved him from the depths of the sea.
Turn Back!
Abandoning YHWH was not an unforgivable crime. YHWH would always welcome home the penitent one who had once abandoned Him:
Isaiah 55:7
Let the wicked abandon [ya-a’zov יַעֲזֹ֤ב] his way, and the unrighteous person his thoughts; and let him return to YHWH, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
Psalm 37:27-29
Turn from evil and do good, so that you will dwell forever. For YHWH loves justice and does not abandon [ya-a’zov יַעֲזֹ֣ב] His godly ones; they are protected forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be eliminated. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.
I Will Not Leave You!
Over and over, YHWH promised that He would not leave His people:
Genesis 28:15
[YHWH:] “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you [lo eh-etsav’ka לֹ֣א אֶֽעֱזָבְךָ֔] until I have done what I have promised you.”
Joshua 1:5b-6 (see also Deut 31:6-8, 16-18)
[YHWH:] “Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you; I will not desert you nor abandon you [eh-ez’veka אֶעֶזְבֶֽךָּ]. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.”
God would not abandon His people, and when He saw that same kind of loyal allegiance amongst His people, He was pleased.
As YHWH’s image bearers we are also not to abandon our sisters and brothers, friends and neighbours. When Ruth had the opportunity to return to her birth family, she instead chose to stay with her destitute mother-in-law, saying:
Ruth 1:16-17
…“Do not plead with me to leave you [l-az’vek לְעָזְבֵ֖ךְ] or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May YHWH do so to me, and worse, if anything but death separates me from you.”
When king David’s son, Absalom, rebelled against him, David had to flee Jerusalem. He made the very poor choice of abandoning ten of his concubines as he fled the city (this would later backfire on him). As he left, David came across a Philistine who had become one of David’s allies:
2 Samuel 15:16-21
So the king left, and all his household with him; but the king left [wai-ya-a’zov וַיַּעֲזֹ֣ב] ten concubines behind to take care of the house. The king left, and all the people with him, and they stopped at the last house. Now all of his servants passed by beside him, and all the Cherethites, all the Pelethites, and all the Gittites, six hundred men who had come with him from Gath, passed by before the king.
Then the king said to Ittai the Gittite, “Why should you go with us too? Return and stay with your king, since you are a foreigner and an exile as well; return to your own place. You came only yesterday, so should I make you wander with us today, while I go wherever I go? Return and take your brothers back; mercy and truth be with you.” But Ittai answered the king and said, “As YHWH lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether for death or for life, there assuredly shall your servant be!”
David left his concubines behind and, immediately after, Ittai refused to leave David’s side. Like Ruth to Naomi, Ittai stood firmly on his conviction to follow David all his life.
We are reminded, again, of Ruth’s faithfulness to her mother-in-law when we read about Elisha’s allegiance to Elijah:
2 Kings 2:1-6
Now it came about, when YHWH was about to bring Elijah up by a whirlwind to heaven, that Elijah left Gilgal with Elisha. And Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here please, for YHWH has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as YHWH lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you [im eh’ez’veka אִם-אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ].” So they went down to Bethel.
Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel went out to Elisha and said to him, “Are you aware that YHWH will take away your master from over you today?” And he said, “Yes, I am aware; say nothing about it.” And Elijah said to him, “Elisha, please stay here, for YHWH has sent me to Jericho.” But he said, “As surely as YHWH lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you [im eh’ez’veka אִם-אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ].” So they came to Jericho.
Then the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho approached Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that YHWH will take away your master from over you today?” And he answered, “Yes, I know; say nothing about it.” And Elijah said to him, “Please stay here, for YHWH has sent me to the Jordan.” But he said, “As surely as YHWH lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you [im eh’ez’veka אִם-אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ].” So the two of them went on.
Three times Elisha refused to leave Elijah’s side, saying “As surely as YHWH lives, and you and yourself live, I will not leave you”. He was utterly devoted to his mentor and friend. (An astute reader might be reminded of Yeshua’s disciple, Peter, when he ran at Yeshua’s arrest and then denied any association with Yeshua three times.)
Later in Elisha’s life, the Shunammite woman called on Elisha to save her son. She would not leave Elisha’s side until he took action, repeating this line, verbatim, to Elisha:
2 Kings 4:30
The mother of the boy said, “As surely as YHWH lives and you yourself live, I will not leave you [im eh’ez’veka אִם-אֶעֶזְבֶךָּ].” So he [Elisha] got up and followed her.
Elisha, hearing his own words spoken back to him, knew immediately the depth of her devotion to save her son. This is the kind of allegiance YHWH requires of us… we are not to abandon our friends, or any human, in need:
Zechariah 11:17a
“Woe to the worthless shepherd who abandons [ohz’vi עֹזְבִ֣י] the flock!”
Why should we not abandon those in need? Because we are to reflect God’s character to the world. YHWH refused to leave anyone who sought to be in right relationship with Him:
Isaiah 49:14-15
But Zion said, “YHWH has abandoned me [a’zavani עֲזָבַ֣נִי], and the Lord has forgotten me.”
[YHWH:] Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.”
Often the Israelites felt abandoned by God, but it was because they abandoned Him first. By their actions, they stopped inviting YHWH to be part of their lives. When Babylon wiped out Jerusalem and dragged its people away into exile, it was because they had turned to the gods of the foreign nations, including Babylon. YHWH merely respected their wishes to be under the dominion of other powers. But when tragedy took them, they forgot the Babylonian gods and they called out to YHWH instead:
Lamentations 5:19-22
You, YHWH, rule forever; Your throne is from generation to generation. Why will You forget us forever? Why do You abandon us [ta-az’venu תַּֽעַזְבֵ֖נוּ] for so long?
Restore us to You, YHWH, so that we may be restored; renew our days as of old, unless You have utterly rejected us and are exceedingly angry with us.
All YHWH has ever wanted was to have a right and good relationship with His people. Even today, He wants our allegiance and has always offered, in turn, His allegiance to us.
Psalm 9:10
[David:] And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, for You, YHWH, have not abandoned [azav’ta עָזַ֖בְתָּ] those who seek You.
YHWH Himself frequently reminded His people that He would not abandon them:
Isaiah 41:17-18
[YHWH:] “The poor and needy are seeking water, but there is none, and their tongues are parched with thirst. I, YHWH, will answer them Myself; as the God of Israel I will not abandon them [lo eh’ez’vem לֹא אֶעֶזְבֵם].
I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land fountains of water.”
Isaiah 62:11-12
Behold, YHWH has proclaimed to the end of the earth:
Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation is coming; behold His reward is with Him, and His compensation before Him.”
And they will call them, “The holy people, the redeemed of YHWH”; and you will be called,
“Sought Out, A City Not Abandoned [ir lo neh-eh’zavah עִיר לֹא נֶעֱזָבָה].”
God loves His people. Those who reach out to Him, He will extend His hand out to bring them into His embrace. YHWH said, “your Salvation is coming”! The word Salvation is Yeshua’s name! Yeshua was coming to save humanity from its own death sentence.
When Yeshua came along, He also held His hand out to anyone willing to grab it. And when He had to leave, He promised to send the Spirit so they could always be connected:
John 14:16-20
[Yeshua:] “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever; the Helper is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him; but you know Him because He remains with you and will be in you.”
“I will not leave you [Greek: apheso ἀφήσω] as orphans; I am coming to you. After a little while, the world no longer is going to see Me, but you are going to see Me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I in you.”
A Soul not Abandoned
This is the beauty of the Biblical message. We are not alone. YHWH is always with us; He will never leave us because the Spirit of God resides in us.
Yeshua showed us what it looks like to be the Image Bearers of God, and now, with the Spirit of God within us, we can be excellent ambassadors of God’s love, mercy, kindness, and compassion on this very troubled world. And when our life, in this time and place, is over we, again, will not be alone:
Psalm 16:8-10
[David:] I have set YHWH continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will dwell securely. For You will not abandon [lo ta-a’zov לֹא-תַעֲזֹב] my soul to Sheol; You will not allow Your Holy One to undergo decay. You will make known to me the way of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Yeshua conquered death so that we, too, can live beyond it. We will find ourselves in the Presence of YHWH, face to face, walking in the Garden of God, where we were always meant to be… together forever.
Next week: Sermon- Solomon and the meaningless goodbye
