Hebrews pardes, meaning an enclosed garden or plantation. Asaph is
(Nehemiah 2:8) called the “keeper of the king’s forest.” The same Hebrew
word is used Ecclesiastes 2:5, where it is rendered in the plural “orchards”
(R.V., “parks”), and Cant. 4: 13, rendered “orchard” (R.V. marg., “a
paradise”).
“The forest of the vintage” (Zechariah 11:2, “inaccessible forest,” or R.V.
“strong forest”) is probably a figurative allusion to Jerusalem, or the verse
may simply point to the devastation of the region referred to.
The forest is an image of unfruitfulness as contrasted with a cultivated
field (Isaiah 29:17; 32:15; Jeremiah 26:18; Hos. 2:12). Isaiah (10:19, 33,
34) likens the Assyrian host under Sennacherib (q.v.) to the trees of some
huge forest, to be suddenly cut down by an unseen stroke.
- FORGIVENESS OF SIN one of the constituent parts of justification. In
pardoning sin, God absolves the sinner from the condemnation of the law,
and that on account of the work of Christ, i.e., he removes the guilt of sin,
or the sinner’s actual liability to eternal wrath on account of it. All sins are
forgiven freely (Acts 5:31; 13:38; 1 John 1:6-9). The sinner is by this act
of grace for ever freed from the guilt and penalty of his sins. This is the
peculiar prerogative of God (Psalm 130:4; Mark 2:5). It is offered to all in
the gospel. (See JUSTIFICATION.) - FORNICATION in every form of it was sternly condemned by the
Mosaic law (Leviticus 21:9; 19:29; Deuteronomy 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18;
Exodus 22:16). (See ADULTERY.)
But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in its ordinary
sense. It frequently means a forsaking of God or a following after idols
(Isaiah 1:2; Jeremiah 2:20; Ezekiel 16; Hos. 1:2; 2:1-5; Jeremiah 3:8,9).