Reference: Backslider
Morish
There are four Hebrew words applied to backsliding.
1. sug, 'to go back:' 'the backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways,' instead of God's ways. Pr 14:14.
2. sarar, to act like a refractory heifer, that will not draw regularly in the plough: to which Israel is compared. Ho 4:16.
3. meshubah, 'a turning away, apostasy.' Jer 2:19; 3:6-12,22; 5:6; 8:5; 14:7; Ho 11:7; 14:4.
4. shobeb 'rebellious, backsliding.' Jer 3:14,22; 31:22; 49:4. The last three words are all used of backsliding Israel. We do not find the word 'backslider' in the N.T. but the same sin is there pointed out, for instance the drawing back which may lead to perdition as in Heb 10:38-39. See APOSTASY.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
From his ways, the perverse of heart will be satisfied, and {from his own}, [so shall] a good man.
Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that [it is] evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me [is] not in you," {declares} the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, "Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted [herself] there. And I thought, 'After her doing all these [things] to me she will return,' but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw [it]. read more. And I saw that {for this very reason, that} on account of apostate Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted [herself] also. And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree. Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, {but only} in pretense," {declares} Yahweh. Then Yahweh said to me, "Apostate Israel has proved herself more upright than treacherous Judah. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, apostate Israel,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not cause my {anger} to fall on you. For I [am] loyal,' {declares} Yahweh. 'I will not be angry {forever}.
"Return, apostate children," {declares} Yahweh. "For {I am your master}, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you [to] Zion.
Return, apostate children, I will heal your backsliding. 'Look, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.
Return, apostate children, I will heal your backsliding. 'Look, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.
Therefore a lion from [the] forest will kill them, A wolf [from the] desert plains will devastate them. A leopard [is] watching their cities, everyone [who] goes out from there will be torn, because their transgressions are many, their apostasies are numerous.
Why has this people, Jerusalem, turned away [in] enduring apostasy? They have kept hold of deceit, they have refused to return.
Although our iniquities testify against us, Yahweh, act for the sake of your name. Yes, our apostasies are many; we have sinned against you.
{How long} will you waver, O unfaithful daughter? For Yahweh has created a new [thing] on the earth, a woman, she shelters a man."
Why do you boast in [your] valleys? Your valleys [are] ebbing. O unfaithful daughter, who trusted in her treasures, [who said], 'Who will come against me?'
Indeed, like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; Now Yahweh will feed them, like a lamb in broad pasture.
My people are bent on backsliding from me. To the Most High they call, he does not raise them at all.
I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely because my anger has turned back from them.
But my righteous one will live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul is not well pleased with him." But we are not among those who shrink back to destruction, but among those who have faith to the preservation of [our] souls.