Is “God Forbid” A Mistranslation in the KJV?
by Thomas Ross
The Old Testament Hebrew translated as “God forbid” is the negative interjection חָלִיל (ḥālı̂l)[1] within a particular syntactical construction,[2] found in phrases such as חָלִילָה֩ לָּ֨נוּ מִמֶּ֜נּוּ (ḥālı̂lâ lānû mimmennû, Joshua 22:29). Commenting on this verse, Keil and Delitzsch note, “חָלִילָה לָנוּ מִמֶּנּוּ, “far be it from us away from Him (מִמֶּנּוּ = מֵיהוָֹה, 1 Sam. 24:7; 26:11, 1 Kings 21:3), to rebel against Jehovah,” etc.”[3] That is, the word is properly considered in texts such as Joshua 22:29 as a part of a syntactical construction that expresses the idea of “God/Jehovah forbid.” This view is supported by texts such as חָלִ֧ילָה לִּ֣י מֵֽיהוָֹ֗ה (ḥālilâ li mēhwh, 1 Samuel 24:6), חָלִ֤ילָה לִּי֙ מֵֽיהוָֹ֔ה (ḥālilâ lı̂ mēhwh, 1 Samuel 26:11), חָלִילָה֩ לִּ֨י יְהוָֹ֜ה (ḥālı̂lâ li yhwh, 2 Samuel 23:17), חָלִ֤ילָה לִּי֙ מֵֽיהוָֹ֔ה (ḥālilâ lı̂ mēhwh, 1 Kings 21:3), חָלִ֖לָה לָאֵ֥ל (ḥālilâ lāʾēl, Job 34:10 (Job 34:10, KJV, “be it far from God”), and חָלִילָה֩ לִּ֨י מֵאֱלֹהַ֜י (ḥālı̂lâ li mēʾᵉlōhay, Chronicles 11:19, KJV “my God forbid it me”).
One notes that the LXX at times translates חָלִיל (ḥālı̂l) phrases with μὴ γένοιτο (mē genoito).[4] The Greek phrase μὴ γένοιτο (mē genoito) is consistently rendered in the New Testament of the King James Version as “God forbid.”[5] Concerning this, A. T. Robertson’s massive Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research notes: “In modern Greek … people sa[y] not μὴ γένοιτο, but ὁ θεὸς νὰ φυλάξῃ … though νά is not here necessary.”[6] That is, the modern Greek version of the New Testament’s μὴ γένοιτο (mē genoito) is “God forbid.”
Thus, there are good reasons in both the Hebrew of the Old Testament and the Greek of the New Testament for the translation “God forbid” as found in the King James Version of the Bible.[7]
[1] The word appears a total of 21 times in the Old Testament, in Genesis 18:25; 44:7, 17; Joshua 22:29; 24:16; 1 Samuel 2:30; 12:23; 14:45; 20:2, 9; 22:15; 24:7 (Eng. v. 6); 26:11; 2 Samuel 20:20; 23:17; 1Kings 21:3; 1Chronicles 11:19; Job 27:5; 34:10.
[2] Note in the Hebrew text the ל (l) that consistently follows, the מִן (min) often present, etc.
[3] Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 2 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 161.
[4] Genesis 44:7, 17; Joshua 22:29; 24:16; 1 Kings 20:3—in each case the KJV reads “God forbid.”
[5] Note Luke 20:16; Romans 3:4, 6, 31; 6:2, 15; 7:7, 13; 9:14; 11:1, 11; 1 Corinthians 6:15; Galatians 2:17; 3:21; 6:14.
[6] A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, A. T. Robertson. 4th ed. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1934, pg. 940.
[7] Note that various commentators have asserted the same thing. For example:
There is Old Testament warrant for the rendering “God forbid”. μὴ γένοιτο corresponds to the Hebrew חלילה and occurs as the rendering of the same in the LXX (cf. Gen. 44:7, 17; Josh. 22:29; 24:16; 1 Kings 20:3). And חלילה is sometimes used with the names for God יהוה and אלהים and אל (1 Sam. 24:6; 26:11; 1 Kings 21:3; 1 Chron. 11:19; Job 34:10; cf. 1 Sam. 2:30) and with the pronoun when the same refers to God (Gen. 18:25). Hence our English expression “God forbid” has biblical precedent. The Greek μὴ γένοιτο, indicating the recoil of abhorrence, needs the strength of this English rendering derived from the Hebrew[.] … The formula … could be rendered … as “far from it,” but it really needs the force of the expression given in [the King James Version as] “God forbid.” (John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, vol. 1, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1968], 94.)
