Psalm 130 · Symbol · Forgiveness
The Words Nasa, Salach and Aphiemi
Nasa and salach in Hebrew and aphiemi in Greek are the verbs the Bible most often renders forgive, and the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament each add rarer words beside them.
When Joseph's brothers begged him to forgive them, they used the Hebrew verb for lifting.
But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.
- The word
- סָלַח (salach), H5545
- First appears
- Exodus 34:9 “O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed…”
Summary
The Bible's words for forgiving picture what happens to a wrong. In the Hebrew Bible the wrong is lifted and carried off, or it is pardoned once atonement has been made. In the Gospels it is sent away and let go, or given up freely as a gift. Because the same pictures serve for debts between neighbors, the words tie God's forgiving of His people to the forgiving they owe one another.
- Salach (H5545) stands 46 times in the Hebrew Bible, and in each of its 33 active uses the one who forgives is the LORD.
- Nasa (H5375) stands 656 times, and the tagged text renders only 25 of them forgive.
- Aphiemi (G863) stands 143 times in the New Testament, and 47 of its uses are rendered forgive.
- Jesus taught the forgiving of sins as the cancelling of debts, in the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:12) and in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23 to 35).
- Aphesis (G859), the noun of aphiemi, names the forgiveness of sins for which Jesus poured out His blood (Matthew 26:28).
Nasa and Salach in Moses' Prayers
Nasa and salach first stand together in Exodus 34, and Moses uses both again when he prays for Israel in Numbers 14.
Forgiveness is one of the values Scripture commands, and Scripture grounds it first in God's own forgiving, so the words it chooses for the act carry the teaching.
This word study asks which Hebrew and Greek words name forgiving, how often each stands, and who forgives in each. It reads every active use of salach for its subject and the four requests in which one person asks another to forgive with nasa. It follows aphiemi through the cancelled debts of Matthew 6 and 18, and closes with aphesis, paresis and charizomai.
maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”The LORD names Himself nose avon, forgiving iniquity, with a participle of nasa, and says in the same verse that He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.
“O Lord,” he said, “if I have indeed found favor in Your sight, my Lord, please go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our iniquity and sin, and take us as Your inheritance.”This is the first use of salach in the Bible, and Moses speaks it to the LORD for a stiff-necked people.
Pardon, I pray, the iniquity of this people, in keeping with the greatness of Your loving devotion, just as You have forgiven them ever since they left Egypt.” “I have pardoned them as you requested,” the LORD replied.Moses asks with salach, recalls God's past forgiving with nasa, and the LORD answers with salach.
Where the Words Stand
Salach and its noun are always forgiving, while kaphar and paresis are never rendered forgive.
Charizomai is rendered forgive in 12 of its 23 uses, and aphesis is rendered forgiveness in 15 of its 17.
| Word | Meaning in the lexicon | Uses | Forgiving uses | Who forgives | A verse where it stands |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | |||||
| salach, סָלַח, H5545, verb | to forgive | 46 | 46 | The LORD in every active use | “May You hear and forgive.” (1 Kings 8:30) |
| selichah, סְלִיחָה, H5547, noun | forgiveness | 3 | 3 | God | “But You are a forgiving God” (Nehemiah 9:17) |
| sallach, סַלָּח, H5546, adjective | forgiving | 1 | 1 | God | “For You, O Lord, are kind and forgiving” (Psalm 86:5) |
| nasa, נָשָׂא, H5375, verb | to lift: raise | 656 | 25 | God, and people asked by people in four verses | “Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity” (Micah 7:18) |
| kaphar, כָּפַר, H3722, verb | to atone | 102 | 0 | No use rendered forgive; the priest atones | “it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul” (Leviticus 17:11) |
| Greek | |||||
| aphiemi, ἀφίημι, G863, verb | to release: permit | 143 | 47 | God, Jesus and believers | “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” (Luke 17:3) |
| aphesis, ἄφεσις, G859, noun | forgiveness | 17 | 15 | God | “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7) |
| charizomai, χαρίζομαι, G5483, verb | to give grace | 23 | 12 | God, Paul and the church | “If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him.” (2 Corinthians 2:10) |
| paresis, πάρεσις, G3929, noun | passing over | 1 | 0 | God, who passed over sins | “because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand” (Romans 3:25) |
Greek, aphiemi, ἀφίημι, G863, verb, aphesis, ἄφεσις, G859, noun, charizomai, χαρίζομαι, G5483, verb, paresis, πάρεσις, G3929, noun
The counts are those of the site's tagged Hebrew and Greek text, and a printed concordance may differ by a few. Some verses hold a word twice, so a word's uses can outnumber its verses.
Salach and the forgiving uses of aphiemi, book by book2 figures
Leviticus holds 10 of the 46 uses of salach, all of them passive.
The thirteen counts as a table
| Book | Uses |
|---|---|
| Leviticus | 10 |
| Numbers | 8 |
| 2 Chronicles | 6 |
| Jeremiah | 6 |
| 1 Kings | 5 |
| 2 Kings | 3 |
| Psalms | 2 |
| Exodus | 1 |
| Deuteronomy | 1 |
| Isaiah | 1 |
| Lamentations | 1 |
| Daniel | 1 |
| Amos | 1 |
13 bars from zero, one for each book of the Hebrew Bible where salach (H5545) stands, in the order of their counts.
Matthew and Luke hold 32 of the 47 uses of aphiemi that the tagged text renders forgive.
The eight counts as a table
| Book | Uses rendered forgive |
|---|---|
| Matthew | 17 |
| Luke | 15 |
| Mark | 8 |
| John | 2 |
| 1 John | 2 |
| Acts | 1 |
| Romans | 1 |
| James | 1 |
8 bars from zero, one for each book of the New Testament where aphiemi (G863) is rendered forgive, in the order of their counts.
Salach Has the LORD as Its Only Doer
Prophets and kings ask the LORD to forgive with salach, and its passive uses follow the priest's atonement.
Daniel and Amos each cry to the Lord with the imperative of salach, and Naaman, the commander of the army of Aram, asks that the LORD forgive him for bowing in the temple of Rimmon. Of Manasseh's bloodshed, 2 Kings says that the LORD was unwilling to forgive. Through Jeremiah the LORD Himself says, “I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”
He shall offer this bull just as he did the bull for the sin offering; in this way the priest will make atonement on their behalf, and they will be forgiven.The priest makes atonement with kaphar, and the passive of salach, they will be forgiven, follows with no human forgiver named.
The 13 passive uses stand in Leviticus 4 to 6 and 19 and in Numbers 15, and each comes after the priest has made atonement.
The Greek Bible's word for the forgiveness of Psalm 130Albert Barnes, Notes on Psalm 130:4
Psalm 130:4 uses selichah, the noun of salach. Albert Barnes wrote in his Notes that “The Septuagint renders this ἱλασμός hilasmos, propitiation, reconciliation”, and that the Hebrew word means pardon. He took the verse to teach “that God is a Being who does pardon sin, and that this is the only ground of hope”.
Nasa Between People
Of the 23 verses where nasa is rendered forgive, four record one person asking another to forgive.
Four people asked another person to forgive them, and each request uses nasa.
| Who asks | Who is asked | The request |
|---|---|---|
| Joseph's brothers | Joseph | “please forgive the transgression and sin of your brothers” (Genesis 50:17) |
| Pharaoh | Moses | “Now please forgive my sin once more” (Exodus 10:17) |
| Saul | Samuel | “Now therefore, please forgive my sin” (1 Samuel 15:25) |
| Abigail | David | “Please forgive your servant’s offense” (1 Samuel 25:28) |
In the other 19 verses the forgiving is God's, asked of Him or done by Him, and in Exodus 23:21 it belongs to the angel in whom is His name.
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.The forgiven transgression is nesui, a passive participle of nasa, and the covered sin is kesui, of kasah, to cover.
Sin lifted and taken awayJohn Gill; Ambrose of Milan
John Gill wrote on Psalm 32:1 in his Exposition of the Old Testament that the word may be rendered “lifted up”, the sin “bore and carried away”. He added that “forgiveness is a removal of sin, guilt, and punishment”.
Ambrose of Milan wrote in his Letter 70 that pardon is remission, “because He takes them away altogether, so that the things which He remembers not are as though they did not exist”.
Aphiemi and the Release of a Debt
Matthew joins aphiemi to three Greek words for what is owed, and Abbott-Smith gives the verb three senses.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.The petition joins aphes, forgive, to opheilemata, debts, and its second half uses the same verb for the forgiving the one who prays has already done.
His master had compassion on him, forgave his debt, and released him.Two verbs free the man and his account: the master released him with apolyo and forgave the loan, daneion, with aphiemi.
Then the master summoned him and declared, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me.The master calls what he forgave the whole opheile, the debt, names his act with aphiemi again, and asks in the next verse why the servant showed no mercy.
Sin as a debt in Gill and TertullianJohn Gill, on Matthew 6:12; Tertullian, On Prayer
John Gill wrote on Matthew 6:12 that the Jewish writings often call sins debts, “and the phrase, of forgiving, is used both of God and men”.
Tertullian, in On Prayer, called debt “a figure of guilt” in the Scriptures, which stands until it is remitted, “just as the lord remitted to that slave in the parable his debt”.
The three senses of aphiemiAbbott-Smith's lexicon, 1 figure
Abbott-Smith's lexicon files the forgiven debt of Matthew 18 under the verb's first sense, to send away and let go.
| Sense in Abbott-Smith | Verses the lexicon cites | A verse where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| to send forth, send away, let go | Matthew 18:27 and 32, Matthew 27:50, Mark 15:37, 1 Corinthians 7:11 to 13 | “He yielded up His spirit.” (Matthew 27:50) |
| to leave alone, leave, neglect | Matthew 4:11, 5:24 and 15:14, Mark 1:20 and 31, John 4:3 and 28, Hebrews 6:1, Revelation 2:4 | “Then the devil left Him, and angels came and ministered to Him.” (Matthew 4:11) |
| to let, suffer, permit | Matthew 3:15, 5:40 and 19:14, Mark 5:37 and 11:16 | “Let the little children come to Me” (Matthew 19:14) |
Aphesis and Charizomai
The noun aphesis names both forgiveness and release, and charizomai names forgiving as a free gift.
This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.Of the three Gospels that give the saying over the cup, only Matthew adds the words for the forgiveness of sins, with aphesis.
“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed,Jesus reads Isaiah's promise in the synagogue at Nazareth, and the words liberty and release in the Berean text both render aphesis.
Charizomai has the meaning to give grace in the site's lexicon, and Abbott-Smith files eight of its verses under a late Greek sense, to grant forgiveness, forgive freely. In Luke 7:42 a moneylender forgives two debtors with it. Paul uses it of God in Colossians 2:13, “He forgave us all our trespasses,” and asks it of the Corinthians for himself in 2 Corinthians 12:13, “Forgive me this wrong!”
Aphesis and the year of jubileeRichard Chenevix Trench, 1871
Richard Chenevix Trench called aphesis “the usual word by which forgiveness, or remission of sins, is expressed in the New Testament”, and its image “that of a releasing or letting go”. He thought that the year of jubilee, when all debts were to be forgiven, probably suggested its use for sins.
Passing Over Beside Forgiving
Readers of Romans 3:25 divide on whether paresis means the same as aphesis or a passing by of sins for a time.
Paresis is a passing by of sins for the presentRichard Chenevix Trench, 1871
Trench defined paresis as “the prætermission or passing by of sins for the present, leaving it open in the future either entirely to remit, or else to punish them”. He held that with a righteous God the passing by could only be for a time, since “every sin must at last either be absolutely forgiven, or adequately avenged”. He read Romans 3:25 as the cross showing God's righteousness after that long forbearance. He reported that Theodore Beza at first rendered the two words alike and later gave paresis the Latin dissimulatio.
Against this reading, Paul uses the word only once, so its sense rests on its derivation and on Greek writers outside the Bible, whom Trench himself cites.
Paresis and aphesis mean one thingThe King James Version (1611)
The King James translators rendered paresis in Romans 3:25 as remission, the word they used for aphesis elsewhere. Trench reported that “many have since justified them”, holding that Paul meant no difference between the two words.
Against this reading, the site's lexicon gives paresis the sense passing by, of debt or sin, and the Berean text renders it He had passed over.
Books to Read Next
Three works on the words, each free to read in full.
The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
James Strong · 1890
Its Hebrew and Greek dictionaries list the King James renderings of salach, nasa and aphiemi.
Read on archive.orgA Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament
G. Abbott-Smith · 1922
Its articles list the meanings of each Greek word of forgiving with the New Testament verses for every meaning.
Read on archive.orgSynonyms of the New Testament
Richard Chenevix Trench · 1871
Its thirty-third section sets aphesis beside paresis and reads Romans 3:25.
Read on archive.orgOne Greek Verb for God and for Us
One sentence of Jesus in Mark 11 uses aphiemi for the forgiving of the one who prays and for the Father's.
And when you stand to pray, if you hold anything against another, forgive it, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your trespasses as well.”The command stands inside prayer itself, so the believer forgives in the same breath in which he asks to be forgiven.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG glosses (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0), the Brief lexicon based on Abbott-Smith (1922), with the Strong's definitions (1890) the rows carry.
- The word-by-word morphology of the Hebrew and Greek text in the site's database.
- James Strong, The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, with brief dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek words of the original (1890)
- Richard Chenevix Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament (New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1871, from the third London edition), section xxxiii, pages 157 to 162.
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), on Psalm 32:1.
- John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746 to 1748), on Matthew 6:12.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on Psalm 130:4.
- Tertullian, On Prayer, on the petition for the forgiveness of debts.
- Ambrose of Milan, Letter 70, To Horontianus.
- The Holy Bible, King James Version (1611), Romans 3:25, as Trench prints it.
Keep Studying
In this value5
Symbols1
Words8