to forgive: for God to pardon sin and release the offender from its guilt
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
In the Hebrew Bible this verb has only one subject, ever: God. People are told to forgive one another using other words, but this particular verb names the pardon that belongs to God alone. It is the act of wiping away the guilt of a wrong so that the relationship can continue and the penalty no longer stands.
The word shows up in two settings that are really one act seen from two sides. In the worship instructions of Leviticus and Numbers it closes the description of a sacrifice with the assurance "and it shall be forgiven him," the announced result once the offering is made. In prayers and prophecies it is what people plead for and what God promises, from Moses begging pardon for a rebellious nation to the promise that God will forgive sin and remember it no more. In both cases the meaning is the same: God lifts away the guilt.
Because the act always belongs to God, the word carries a note of grace rather than obligation. Forgiveness here is something God grants, often at great cost to his patience, not something owed. That is why it so often sits next to pleas for mercy and confessions of sin.
in Hebrew this verb is used only of God, so the word itself signals divine pardon rather than the everyday forgiving people do for one anotherNum 14:20Psa 25:11
Both
both name the release of an offender from the guilt and penalty of a wrongJer 31:34
Only forgive
the English word covers any forgiving at all, from a friend overlooking a slight to a court waiving a debt, with no hint that God is the one who acts
the Hebrew always has God as the one who pardons, tying the word to mercy granted from aboveExo 34:9Num 14:19
Both
both name the canceling of guilt so the penalty no longer stands2Ki 24:4
Only pardon
in English "pardon" leans legal and official, the act of an authority canceling a sentence, which can make the warmth of God's grace sound merely procedural
How salaḥ differs from similar Hebrew words
כָּפַרto make atonement, the priestly act of covering or wiping away sin through sacrifice; it names the ritual that secures pardon, where this word names the pardon God then grants
names the pardon itself, what God grants once a wrong is dealt with; God is always the one who does it, never a priest performing a rite.Num 14:19Psa 103:3
is purely relational, the release of the offender from guilt, with no idea of a payment, a soothing gift, or a cleansing of any object.Jer 31:341Ki 8:30
Both
the recurring offering law yokes the two as a single sequence: the priest makes atonement, and then it is forgiven to the offender.Lev 4:20Lev 4:26
both name the removal of guilt so the offender stands clear before God, and the offering texts treat them as two faces of the one outcome.Lev 5:18Num 15:25
names the priest's ritual operation at the altar, the act done with blood that addresses the sin before God acts; it is the human-side rite, not the divine response.Lev 16:30Lev 4:26
reaches well beyond forgiveness to mean soothing anger, paying a ransom, or clearing a forfeited life with an equivalent, senses forgiveness language does not carry.Gen 32:20Num 35:33
can take a place or object as what is acted on, scouring the altar or sanctuary clean of the stain sin leaves on it.Lev 8:15Ezk 43:20
נָשָׂאto lift or carry, and so to bear away guilt; a broad everyday verb that sometimes means forgive, unlike this word, which means only divine pardon
It means only to pardon, and in the Bible God is always the one who does it. It belongs to the language of the altar and of prayer, where guilt is dealt with and a person is released from it.Lev 4:201Ki 8:30
Both
Both can name the granting of pardon for sin, and the two sit side by side in a single plea: Moses asks God to pardon the people, and God answers that he has pardoned.Num 14:19Num 14:20
Its core is the plain, physical act of picking something up and carrying it. Forgiveness is only one branch of that wide range, pictured as lifting a load of guilt off a person and bearing it away, and people as well as God can do it.Gen 50:17Exo 10:17
סְלִיחָהthe noun forgiveness, the result or quality named by this verb's action
Always describes God pardoning sin as an act of grace; the subject is God, and the result is that the offender is released from the guilt of what was done.Num 14:19Psa 25:11Jer 31:34
Tied to worship and the sacrificial system: after the prescribed offering is made, the worshiper is pardoned, so the word belongs to the language of atonement and restored relationship.Lev 4:20Lev 4:26Lev 5:10
Both
Both describe a wrongdoer being released from the consequences of guilt: one as a verdict of innocence or escape from penalty, the other as God granting pardon.Num 14:18Num 14:19
Names the legal verdict of being held innocent, or going free without penalty, rather than the granting of pardon. It treats a person as clear of guilt, or lets a wrong go unpunished.Exo 20:7Pro 6:29Pro 11:21
Often appears in the negative, where the warning is precisely that the guilty will NOT be left unpunished, so the word can describe an outcome to be denied rather than a gift to be given.Exo 34:7Num 14:18Nam 1:3
Used of people being released from an obligation or a charge, not only of guilt before God, so it can mean simply going free from a vow or a binding word.Gen 24:8Gen 24:41Jdg 15:3
salaḥ in the other biblical languages
ἀφίημιGreek“to release: leave”to release, let go, and so forgive; the main Greek verb for forgiveness, used of both God and people, where the Hebrew verb is reserved for God
Carries a wide everyday range beyond pardon: physically leaving, abandoning, or letting go of a thing or person.Mat 4:20Mat 4:22Mrk 1:18
Means to permit or allow, letting something happen or stand.Mat 3:15Mat 19:14
Forgiveness with it can be extended by one person to another, not God alone, including the debts and wrongs people owe each other.Mat 6:12Mat 18:21Mat 18:27
χαρίζωGreek“to give grace”to give freely as a favor, and so to forgive graciously; stresses forgiveness as an act of grace
God is always the one who acts: pardon is something only he grants, never something people do for each other.Num 14:19Psa 25:11Jer 31:34
Tied to the worship system that deals with guilt: pardon follows the offering made for sin and the priest's act on the worshiper's behalf.Lev 4:20Lev 5:10Num 15:25
Both
Both name the release of guilt: God wipes away sin and treats the offender as no longer holding the debt.Jer 33:8Col 2:13
Reaches beyond pardon to mean giving freely as a favor: granting a person, a gift, or a privilege, not only canceling a debt.Rom 8:32Gal 3:18Php 1:29
Names people forgiving one another, not only God forgiving them: believers are told to release each other the way they themselves were released.Eph 4:32Col 3:132Co 2:7
God is always the one who does the forgiving. The word is reserved for divine pardon, so people are never said to do this to one another.Num 14:20Psa 103:3
It is bound to the sacrificial system, spoken as the verdict after an offering: once the priest has made atonement, the worshiper is forgiven.Lev 4:20Lev 4:26
Both
Both name the pardon of sin that only God grants, the removal of guilt so it is no longer counted against the offender.Jer 31:34Act 2:38
Its root sense is a letting go or release that reaches beyond pardon of sin. It can name liberty for captives and prisoners, not only the wiping away of guilt.Luk 4:18
In the New Testament this forgiveness is grounded in a decisive act, the shed blood of Christ, so it names a remission secured once for all rather than a pardon repeatedly sought.Mat 26:28Eph 1:7Heb 9:22
A verb of pardon whose subject is always God, describing the divine act of releasing a person from guilt rather than the sacrifice that makes it possible.Psa 103:3Jer 31:34
Regularly the very thing sinners plead for in prayer, granted out of God's own mercy and steadfast love.Num 14:19Dan 9:19
Both
Both belong to the single movement by which sin is dealt with before God and the relationship is restored. In the law forgiveness is pronounced once the atoning offering has been made, and the New Testament word names that atoning provision itself.Lev 4:201Jn 2:2
Names the atoning provision that turns away wrath and removes the barrier of sin, rather than the act of pardon itself. In both New Testament uses this provision is a person: Christ is called the propitiation.1Jn 2:21Jn 4:10
What scholars say about salaḥ
The standard lexica (BDB, HALOT) and theological dictionaries (TWOT, TDOT) treat this as a single root meaning to forgive or pardon, with God as the exclusive subject throughout the Hebrew Bible; human-to-human forgiveness is expressed by other verbs. The qal denotes God granting forgiveness; the niphal (chiefly the priestly formula in Leviticus and Numbers) denotes the resulting state, that the offerer is forgiven. No homonym is recognized. The cultic uses cluster in the sacrificial legislation, the petitionary and declarative uses in prayer, Solomon's temple dedication, the Psalms, and the prophets.
Sources
BDB, s.v. סָלַחlexicon
HALOT, s.v. סלחlexicon
TWOT, no. 1505 (סָלַח)theological-dictionary
J. J. Stamm, "סלח slḥ to forgive," Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament (TLOT)theological-dictionary