To leave behind
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G1459, enkataleípō, is a Greek verb for leaving someone or something behind, with contextual senses such as abandoning, forsaking, deserting, or neglecting. It appears in Jesus' cry from Psalm 22, Peter's resurrection proclamation that the Christ was not abandoned to Hades, Paul's testimony of persecution without divine forsakenness, painful coworker desertion, neglect of the Christian assembly, God's promise never.
Reader summary
Full entry for ἐγκαταλείπω (G1459) · Open the biblical lexicon
G1459, enkataleípō, is a Greek verb for leaving someone or something behind, with contextual senses such as abandoning, forsaking, deserting, or neglecting. It appears in Jesus' cry from Psalm 22, Peter's resurrection proclamation that the Christ was not abandoned to Hades, Paul's testimony of persecution without divine forsakenness, painful coworker.
The BSB source-word alignment has 10 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include have You forsaken (2), deserted (1), forsaken (1), had left (1), has deserted (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 27:46. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Timothy (2), Acts (2), Hebrews (2), 2 Corinthians (1).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
G1459, enkataleípō, is a Greek verb for leaving someone or something behind, with contextual senses such as abandoning, forsaking, deserting, or neglecting. It appears in Jesus' cry from Psalm 22, Peter's resurrection proclamation that the Christ was not abandoned to Hades, Paul's testimony of persecution without divine forsakenness, painful coworker desertion, neglect of the Christian assembly, God's promise never to forsake His people, and a remnant left by the Lord. The verb can describe human failure, threatened final loss, communal neglect, or the absence of abandonment; each object and setting must remain visible.
At the cross Jesus voices Psalm 22:1 in real agony. Matthew and Mark do not invite casual speculation that divides the Trinity, denies Jesus' suffering, or treats the cry as theatrical. The psalm supplies the scriptural language of lament, and Acts 2 proclaims resurrection by saying the Messiah was not abandoned to Hades or given over to decay. Christian teaching can therefore name the depth of the crucifixion and the Father's vindicating act without inventing a metaphysical rupture the passages do not state.
The letters bring abandonment into community life. Paul can be persecuted yet not forsaken by God, while also reporting that Demas deserted him and that no one stood with him at his first defense. His mercy toward those who failed him is his faithful response, not a tool for compelling harmed people to waive safety or accountability. Hebrews warns against neglecting the assembly and anchors contentment in God's promise not to forsake. That exhortation must support accessible, safe, mutual encouragement rather than coercive attendance, concealment of abuse, or shame toward people isolated by illness, disability, caregiving, work, imprisonment, or danger.
G1459 gathers crucifixion lament, resurrection vindication, remnant preservation, persecution without divine abandonment, coworker desertion, neglected assembly, and God's durable promise of presence.
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Matthew preserves Jesus' loud scriptural lament in the darkness of crucifixion. The cry must be heard as genuine suffering without adding a doctrine of broken divine being that the verse does not articulate.
At the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Mark gives the Aramaic form and translation, placing Psalm 22 on Jesus' lips near death. Lament remains address to God even when rescue feels absent.
Because You will not abandon my soul to Hades, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay.
Peter cites the psalm as a promise that reaches beyond David to the Messiah. Abandonment to Hades is negated by God's resurrection action.
Foreseeing this, David spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did His body see decay.
The sermon states its christological interpretation directly: Jesus' death was real, and bodily decay did not become His final condition.
It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.”
Here leaving behind is preserving a descendant remnant rather than deserting someone. Paul's Isaiah citation keeps judgment from erasing God's preserving mercy toward Israel.
Persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
Paul contrasts severe apostolic suffering with divine non-abandonment. The line does not minimize persecution or promise immunity from injury; it locates endurance within God's sustaining presence.
Because Demas, in his love of this world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.
Demas's departure receives a stated moral explanation, while Crescens and Titus are simply reported as going elsewhere. Readers should not condemn every absent coworker by association.
At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.
Paul names collective failure at a dangerous legal moment and then expresses mercy. His prayer does not deny the desertion or establish a rule that survivors must forgo protection and accountability.
Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Neglecting assembly is opposed to mutual encouragement and persevering hope. The command should prompt communities to remove barriers, not punish people whose safety or circumstances require different forms of gathering.
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”
God's non-forsaking presence grounds freedom from money-love and contentment. The promise is not a command to accept exploitation or refuse legitimate material needs.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. To abandon or forsake someone completely, especially in crisis or need; covenant-breaking desertion.
To abandon or forsake someone completely, especially in crisis or need; covenant-breaking desertion.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
9 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseI abandon, desert
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
How this verb appears across 10 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 10 lexical occurrence verses.
ἐγκαταλείπω is built from these roots:
Indicates covenantal abandonment under judgment.2 Timothy 4:9-15
The word captures the painful reality of relational abandonment in ministry.Mark 15:33–41
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
G1459 does not let Christian hope bypass abandonment. Jesus voices Psalm 22 from the cross, giving scriptural words to real agony without ceasing to address God. Acts then declares that death and Hades did not retain Him: resurrection is God's answer to final abandonment. Paul lives inside the same tension, persecuted but not forsaken by God while painfully deserted by coworkers in a dangerous hour.
Hebrews applies the word to communities that must not abandon shared encouragement and to God's promise never to forsake His people. Romans adds a different use, the Lord leaving a descendant remnant so judgment does not become annihilation. Churches shaped by these texts make gathering safe and accessible, remain present in crisis, name desertion without euphemism, receive lament without doctrinal panic, and refuse to turn divine presence into an excuse for human absence.
Heb.13.5
G1459 combines the idea of leaving with an intensifying prefix and occurs in active and passive forms. It can mean desert, forsake, neglect, or leave behind, including the positive preservation of descendants in Romans 9. The same surface English word forsake can describe the cross cry, denied abandonment to Hades, human desertion, or God's promise, so negation and object are essential to interpretation.
Psalm 22 supplies the cross cry; Joshua and Deuteronomy supply the promise echoed in Hebrews that God will not forsake His people; Isaiah supplies the descendant remnant cited in Romans. The New Testament receives these texts through crucifixion, resurrection, church perseverance, and divine presence without erasing their original covenant settings.