to turn back: to draw away from where one stood, whether retreating in defeat or falling away from someone once followed
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintyStrong
At its core this verb pictures a backward movement, a reversal of course. Someone or something that was facing forward, advancing, or standing firm now pulls back and gives ground. The word almost always appears in the form that describes being turned back or turning oneself away, so the motion is either forced on a person or chosen by them.
That one image plays out in two settings. On the battlefield it is retreat: an enemy army is repulsed and driven off, or a trusted friend withdraws and deserts. In the life of faith it is defection: a heart that once followed God turns away and falls back. The Psalms lean on both. The prayer "let them be turned back and put to shame" asks God to repel an attacker, while the quiet boast "our heart has not turned back" claims steady loyalty.
Unlike שׁוּב, the broad word for turning that can bring a person back toward God in repentance, this verb only ever names the regressive move, the drawing away and falling back. It is never the turn toward home; it is always the turn from it.
Nuances
1ato be turned back or driven back: to retreat, be repulsed, or withdraw
Keeps a plain, physical picture of turning and drawing back, so the same word can describe an army driven off the field as easily as a straying heart, a breadth the religious term lacksJer 46:5
Both
Both name a turning away from a loyalty or a path once kept faithfullyPro 14:14
Only backslide
"Backslide" is a modern religious label for a lapsed believer, a churchy category the ancient word never carried on its own
“turn back”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“driven back”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“turn away”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How sug differs from similar Hebrew words
סוּרThe all-purpose word for turning aside or departing from a path or a command; this verb is narrower, a drawing back or falling away from where one stood.
Names turning aside off a path, veering to the right or the left, stepping away to look, rather than reversing course backward.Exo 3:3Deu 5:32Deu 17:11
Adds a whole causative sense the other word never has: to take something off or take it away, removing an object entirely.Gen 8:13Gen 41:42Exo 8:8Lev 3:4
שׁוּבThe broad word for turning or returning, which can bring a person back toward God in repentance; this verb names only the backward, regressive move away.
It is the ordinary, neutral verb for going or coming back to a place, carrying no shade of failure or disloyalty.Gen 8:3Gen 18:33Gen 22:19
It reaches beyond motion to giving something back or restoring it to its former place and standing.Gen 20:14Gen 40:13Gen 42:25
מָעַלNames the act of unfaithfulness or treachery itself; this verb pictures the turning-away motion that such betrayal begins with, and the two stand side by side in Psalm 78:57.
Pictures a literal turning or being driven backward, often with no moral fault at all: it is the word for enemies repulsed and put to flight in battle.Psa 35:4Psa 70:2Jer 46:5
Where the failure is moral, it is a gradual drawing back or drifting away rather than a single treacherous act, as with the person whose heart slowly slides from its former loyalty.Pro 14:14Psa 44:18
Both
Both can name giving up loyalty to the LORD and turning away from the covenant relationship with him.2Ch 30:7Zep 1:6
Frames the wrong as a betrayal of trust: reaching for and misusing what rightly belongs to someone else, whether things set apart as holy to God, plunder placed under a ban, or a partner in marriage.Lev 5:15Jos 7:1Num 5:12
It is the standing prayer against attackers: let them be turned back and put to shame. Defeat and disgrace arrive in the same breath, and the people driven back are enemies of the one praying.Psa 35:4Psa 40:14Psa 70:2Psa 129:5Isa 42:17
It is the word for loyalty measured over time, so it works just as well in the negative: a heart that has not turned back, a people promising they will not draw away, a servant who did not turn backward. The other verb is never used for a claim of steadiness like that.Psa 44:18Psa 80:18Isa 50:5
It can name a settled character rather than a single act, which is how it becomes the person Proverbs calls "the backslider in heart," and how it describes friends who quietly desert someone in trouble.Pro 14:14Jer 38:22
Both
Both describe desertion from God, and both use the same picture for it: turning back from walking behind him.Isa 59:13Zep 1:6Psa 78:57
Both can describe being forced backwards and losing ground, whether it is justice driven out of the public square or an army beaten off the field.Isa 59:14Jer 46:5
This is the verb of the boundary stone. The law forbids shifting the marker that fixes a neighbor's field, one of the curses read out at Mount Ebal falls on whoever does it, and the wisdom sayings repeat the warning twice. The other verb is never used of a boundary marker at all.Deu 19:14Deu 27:17Pro 22:28Pro 23:10Hos 5:10
What gets pushed back is usually a thing rather than a person: a stone lifted off the line where it stood, goods hauled off or stowed out of reach, justice shoved out of the place it belongs in. The other verb is used of people who turn, not of property or of a standard being displaced.Pro 22:28Mic 6:14Isa 59:14
Because the classic use is a theft nobody can see happening, this verb carries a note of quiet, deniable wrongdoing. The neighbor's field simply gets smaller, and there is nothing left to point at.Deu 19:14Pro 23:10Hos 5:10
sug in the other biblical languages
ἀφίστημιGreek“to leave”The main Greek word for falling away or departing, the root of the New Testament idea of apostasy; it matches this verb's sense of a heart turning away from God.
Pictures being turned or driven backward, especially an enemy forced to give ground in battle or feet sliding back in defeat. This idea of a reversed, routed retreat has no counterpart in the Greek word.Psa 35:4Psa 70:2Jer 46:5
Both
Both can describe turning away from God, abandoning loyalty to him and drifting into unfaithfulness. The Hebrew word warns against a heart that turns back from the LORD; the Greek word warns against a heart that departs from the living God.Zep 1:6Psa 78:57Heb 3:121Ti 4:1
Names a plain, physical departure: someone leaving a place or stepping away from a person, with no hint of retreat or unfaithfulness. Anna never left the temple, the rescuing angel left Peter's side, and Mark left the mission team.Luk 2:37Act 12:10Act 15:38
ἀποστρέφωGreek“to turn away”To turn away or turn back; the Greek verb that most directly mirrors this word's backward turning, whether of the body or of the heart.
Pictures enemies driven back and put to shame in defeat: those who plot harm are made to turn back (Psalm 35:4;Psalm 70:2), and warriors turn and flee the battle line (Jeremiah 46:5).Psa 35:4Psa 70:2Jer 46:5
Expresses steadfast loyalty stated in the negative, as a heart that refuses to draw back: our heart has not turned back (Psalm 44:18), and we will not turn back from you (Psalm 80:18).Psa 44:18Psa 80:18
Both
Both describe turning away from God or his truth as an act of unfaithfulness. The Hebrew names those who turn back from following the LORD (Zephaniah 1:6), and the Greek names people who turn away from the truth (Titus 1:14).Zep 1:6Tit 1:14
Acts on something or someone else and reverses its direction, not just the speaker's own movement: putting a drawn sword back in its place (Matthew 26:52), removing wrongdoing from a people (Romans 11:26), and turning people away from their sins (Acts 3:26).Mat 26:52Rom 11:26Act 3:26
Names the refusal of a person who asks for help, where the turning is a social rebuff: do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow (Matthew 5:42).Mat 5:42
What scholars say about sug
The standard lexica treat H5472 סוג as a single root meaning "to move away, turn back, backslide," attested almost entirely in the niphal (the passive-reflexive stem, giving "be turned back" or "turn oneself away") with a few qal forms (Proverbs 14:14;Psalm 80:18;Psalm 53:3). BDB and HALOT group its uses under one head, distinguishing a concrete military sense (an enemy repulsed and driven back, as in the imprecatory formula of Psalms 35:4; 40:14; 70:2; 129:5, and the rout of Jeremiah 46:5) from a covenantal-moral sense of apostasy or defection (Psalm 78:57;Zephaniah 1:6;Isaiah 50:5; and the negated confessions of loyalty in Psalm 44:18; 80:18). TWOT (§1469) stresses the recurring "turned back and ashamed" pairing that binds defeat to disgrace. A recognized text-critical point attaches to Psalm 53:3, whose near-duplicate Psalm 14:3 reads the synonymous סוּר (H5493) rather than סוג; the two are treated as interchangeable there, and the sense of turning away from God is not in doubt. The verb should not be confused with the similar-looking נָסַג / הִסִּיג (H5253) used for moving a boundary marker.