Forfeit
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [1]
in the Active Voice, signifies "to damage;" in the Passive, "to suffer loss, forfeit," Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36 , of the "life," RV; AV, and RV marg., "soul;" in each place the RV has "forfeit," for AV, "lose;" Luke 9:25 , "his own self" (RV. "forfeit," AV, "be cast away;" here the preceding word "lose" translates apollumi, "to destroy"). What is in view here is the act of "forfeiting" what is of the greatest value, not the casting away by Divine judgment, though that is involved, but losing or penalizing one's own self, with spiritual and eternal loss. The word is also used in 1—Corinthians 3:15; 2—Corinthians 7:9; Philippians 3:8 . See Cast , Lose , LOSS (suffer).
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): ( n.) Injury; wrong; mischief.
(2): ( n.) To lose, or lose the right to, by some error, fault, offense, or crime; to render one's self by misdeed liable to be deprived of; to alienate the right to possess, by some neglect or crime; as, to forfeit an estate by treason; to forfeit reputation by a breach of promise; - with to before the one acquiring what is forfeited.
(3): ( v. i.) To fail to keep an obligation.
(4): ( n.) A thing forfeit or forfeited; what is or may be taken from one in requital of a misdeed committed; that which is lost, or the right to which is alienated, by a crime, offense, neglect of duty, or breach of contract; hence, a fine; a mulct; a penalty; as, he who murders pays the forfeit of his life.
(5): ( n.) Lost or alienated for an offense or crime; liable to penal seizure.
(6): ( v. i.) To be guilty of a misdeed; to be criminal; to transgress.
(7): ( n.) Something deposited and redeemable by a sportive fine; - whence the game of forfeits.
(8): ( p. p. / a.) In the condition of being forfeited; subject to alienation.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [3]
fôr´fit ( חרם , ḥāram ): "Forfeit" (from forisfacere , "to act beyond") implies loss through transgression or non-observance of some law or rule. The word occurs only once as the translation of ḥāram , "to shut in," frequently to devote or consecrate a person or thing to God beyond redemption (compare Leviticus 27:28 , Leviticus 27:29; Micah 4:13; Ezra 10:8 , "That whosoever came not within three days,... all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the assembly of the captivity," King James Version margin, the American Revised Version, margin and the Revised Version (British and American) "devoted"; compare 1 Esdras 9:4, "Their cattle should be seized to the use of the temple" ( anieróō , "to consecrate," "devote"); 6:32, "all his goods seized for the king" ( tá hupárchonia autoú eı́nai ‛eis' basiliká' ).
The Revised Version (British and American) has "forfeited" ( ḳādhēsh , "consecrated," "devoted") for "defiled" ( Deuteronomy 22:9 ), margin "Hebrew consecrated"; "forfeit his life" for "lose his own soul" ( psuchḗ ) ( Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36 ); "lose or forfeit his own self" for "lose himself or be cast away" ( Luke 9:25 , heautón dé apolésas ḗ zēmiōtheı́s ; zēmióō is the Septuagint for ‛ānash , "to be mulcted," or "fined," Exodus 21:22; Deuteronomy 22:19; Proverbs 17:26 m; Proverbs 19:19; Proverbs 21:11; Proverbs 22:3 ); Weymouth renders Luke 9:25 , "to have lost or forfeited his own self" (or "had to pay his own self - his own existence - as a fine"); in the other instances of zēmioō ( 1 Corinthians 3:15; Philippians 3:8 ), the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) render "suffer loss," "suffered ... loss"; 2 Corinthians 7:9 the King James Version, "receive damage."
