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 (De 4:9,23,11; 6:12; Jg 3:7; 1Sa 12:9; Ps 44:20, etc.). In an innocent or neutral, sometimes good, sense it is used in Ge 27:45; De 24:19; Job 9:27; 11:16; 24:20; Ps 102:4, etc. It is also used of God forgetting or not seeming to care (Ps 9:12; 10:11-12; 13:1; 42:9; 77:9; Isa 49:15, etc.). To "forget" sometimes means to forsake (Ps 45:10; 74:19, etc.).
In the New Testament epilanthanomai is used of simple forgetting (Mt 16:5; Mr 8:14, etc.; in Lu 12:6 the sense of care is implied); Php 3:13, "forgetting the things which are behind," has the force of leaving behind. "Forgetful" in Jas 1:25 is epilesmone, the Revised Version (British and American) "a hearer that forgetteth." "Forgetfulness" Ps 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" (2Pe 3:8; similarly 2Pe 3:5).
W. L. Walker