Forbid
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( v. t.) To defy; to challenge.
(2): ( v. i.) To utter a prohibition; to prevent; to hinder.
(3): ( v. t.) To oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command; as, an impassable river forbids the approach of the army.
(4): of Forbid
(5): ( v. t.) To accurse; to blast.
(6): ( v. t.) To command against, or contrary to; to prohibit; to interdict.
(7): ( v. t.) To deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command; to command not to enter.
King James Dictionary [2]
FORBID', 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', 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.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
for - bid ´ (כּלא , kālā' ; κωλύω , kōlúō ): Occurs very seldom in the Old Testament except as the rendering of ḥālı̄lāh (see below); it is once the translation of kālā' , "to restrain" ( Numbers 11:28 , "Joshua ... said My lord Moses forbid them"); twice of cāwāh , "to command" ( Deuteronomy 2:37 , "and wheresoever Yahweh our God forbade us"; Deuteronomy 4:23 , "Yahweh thy God hath forbidden thee," literally, "commanded"); once of lō' , "not," the Revised Version (British and American) "commanded not to be done" ( Leviticus 5:17 ). In the phrases, "Yahweh forbid" ( 1 Samuel 24:6; 1 Samuel 26:11; 1 Kings 21:13 ), "God forbid" ( Genesis 44:7; Joshua 22:29; Joshua 24:16; 1 Samuel 12:23; Job 27:5 , etc.), "My God forbid it me" ( 1 Chronicles 11:19 ), the word is ḥālı̄lāh , denoting profanation, or abhorrence (rendered, Genesis 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 1 Samuel 14:45; 1 Samuel 20:2 , where it is, "Far from it."
In the New Testament kōluō , "to cut short," "restrain" is the word commonly translated "forbid" ( Matthew 19:14 , "forbid them not," etc.); in Luke 6:29 , the Revised Version (British and American) has "withhold not"; diakōlúō , with a similar meaning, occurs in Matthew 3:14 , "John forbade him," the Revised Version (British and American) "would have hindered him"; akōlútos , "uncut off" ( Acts 28:31 ), is translated "none forbidding him." The phrase "God forbid" ( mḗ génoito , "let it not be," Luke 20:16; Romans 3:4 , etc.) is retained by the Revised Version (British and American), with margin "Be it not so," except in Galatians 6:14 , where the text has "Far be it from me"; mē genoito is one of the renderings of ḥālı̄lāh in Septuagint. "God forbid" also appears in Apocrypha (1 Macc 2:21, the Revised Version (British and American) "Heaven forbid," margin, Greek "may he be propitious," 1 Macc 9:10, the Revised Version (British and American) "Let it not be").
