What’s the origin of the phrase ‘Far be it from me’?
From the Wycliffe’s Bible, 1382, Genesis 44:17:
Josephe answerde, Fer be it fro me, that Y thus do.
The expression also appears in the later King James Version, 1611, Samuel 20:20:
And Joab answered and said, Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy.