Egkatalipo means to leave behind, forsake, or abandon — to desert someone in a time of need. It is a compound of en (in), kata (down, against), and leipo (to leave). It appears in Matthew 27:46 (Mark 15:34) in Jesus' cry from the cross: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' and in Hebrews 13:5 in the opposite promise.
The theology of egkatalipo is shaped by its two most important uses pulling in opposite directions. Jesus cried it from the cross — experiencing the full weight of divine abandonment as the sin-bearer. Yet Hebrews 13:5 quotes God's promise to never egkatalipo His people. The resolution is the cross itself: Jesus was forsaken so we never will be. His abandonment is our guarantee of acceptance. 2 Timothy 4:10 and 4:16 use the same word for human desertion — Paul was forsaken at his trial, yet God stood with him (4:17), illustrating the same pattern.