salach · forgive

What it means

salach (סָלַח) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “forgive”.

Pardon. In the Bible this verb has only God as its subject.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To wipe away sin; in the Bible only God does this.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To forgive: to release someone from his guilt, not to count his sin against him. In the Hebrew Bible the one who forgives with this verb is always God. From the same root is סַלָּח, ‘forgiving’.

• “And he will be forgiven”: the sin offering Leviticus 4:20Leviticus 4:26Numbers 15:25
• “Forgive, please”: intercession Exodus 34:9Numbers 14:19Amos 7:2
• “Listen and forgive”: the temple prayer 1 Kings 8:301 Kings 8:392 Chronicles 7:14
• “I will forgive their iniquity”: the promise Jeremiah 31:34Isaiah 55:7
• YHWH was not willing to forgive Deuteronomy 29:202 Kings 24:4Lamentations 3:42

Historical and cultural background

Naaman asks Elisha that YHWH pardon him when he has to accompany his master into the house of Rimmon (2 Kings 5:18). YHWH answers Moses’ intercession: “I have forgiven, according to your word” (Numbers 14:20).

How we translate it

Always ‘forgive’ (“forgive” 25 times, “he will be forgiven” 8, “forgiven” 5), and “pardon” 4 (2 Kings 5:18). In the Law, the passive closes the rite: “So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin, and he will be forgiven” (Leviticus 4:26).

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• forgive ×25
• he will be forgiven ×8
• forgiven ×5
• pardon ×4
• he shall be forgiven ×2
• forgiving ×1
• who forgives ×1
• you ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Exodus×1
• Leviticus×10
• Numbers×8
• Deuteronomy×1
• 1 Kings×5
• 2 Kings×3
• 2 Chronicles×6
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×1
• Jeremiah×7
• Lamentations×1
• Daniel×1
• Amos×1

• Exodus 34:9

  And he said, “If, please, I have found favor in your eyes, Adonai, let Adonai go, please, in our midst; although it is a stubborn people, forgive our iniquity and our sin, and take us as your inheritance.”

• Leviticus 4:20

  He shall do with the bull just as he did with the bull of the sin offering; so he shall do with it. And the priest shall make expiation for them, and they will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 4:26

  All its fat he shall offer up in smoke on the altar, like the fat of the sacrifice of peace. So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 4:31

  All its fat he shall remove, just as the fat is removed from the sacrifice of peace, and the priest shall offer it up in smoke on the altar for a pleasing aroma to YHWH. So the priest shall make expiation for him, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 4:35

  All its fat he shall remove, just as the fat of the lamb is removed from the sacrifice of peace, and the priest shall offer up in smoke them on the altar, on top of the fire offerings of YHWH. So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin that he has committed, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 5:10

  The second he shall offer as a burnt offering according to the regulation. So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin that he has committed, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 5:13

  So the priest shall make expiation for him for his sin that he has committed in any of these, and he will be forgiven. And the rest shall be for the priest, as with the grain offering.”

• Leviticus 5:16

  And what he has sinned against the holy thing he shall restore, and he shall add a fifth to it and give it to the priest; and the priest shall make expiation for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 5:18

  He shall bring a ram without defect from the flock, by your valuation, as a guilt offering, to the priest, and the priest shall make expiation for him for his inadvertence in which he erred without knowing it, and he will be forgiven.

• Leviticus 6:7

  And the priest shall make expiation for him before YHWH, and he will be forgiven for any one of all the things that he may do so as to become guilty by it.”

• Leviticus 19:22

  And the priest shall make expiation for him with the ram of the guilt offering before YHWH for his sin that he has committed, and he shall be forgiven for his sin that he has committed.

• Numbers 14:19

  Please forgive the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your loyal love, and just as you have forgiven this people from Egypt and until now.”

• Numbers 14:20

  And YHWH said, “I have forgiven, according to your word.

• Numbers 15:25

  And the priest shall make expiation for all the community of the sons of Israel, and they shall be forgiven, for it was an oversight, and they have brought their offering, a fire offering to YHWH, and their sin offering before YHWH, for their oversight.

• Numbers 15:26

  And all the community of the sons of Israel shall be forgiven, and the resident alien who resides among them, for all the people acted by oversight.

• Numbers 15:28

  And the priest shall make expiation for the person who errs, when he sins by oversight, before YHWH, to make expiation for him, and he shall be forgiven.

• Numbers 30:5

  But if her father forbids her on the day he hears of it, none of her vows or her obligations that she has bound on her soul shall stand; and YHWH will forgive her, because her father forbade her.

• Numbers 30:8

  But if on the day her husband hears of it he forbids her, then he annuls her vow that is on her and the rash utterance of her lips that she has bound on her soul; and YHWH will forgive her.

• Numbers 30:12

  But if her husband does annul them on the day he hears of them, nothing that came out of her lips concerning her vows or concerning the obligation of her soul shall stand; her husband has annulled them, and YHWH will forgive her.

• Deuteronomy 29:20

  YHWH will not be willing to forgive him, for then the anger of YHWH and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and every oath of imprecation written in this book will settle on him, and YHWH will blot out his name from under the heavens.

• 1 Kings 8:30

  And listen to the supplication of your servant and of your people Israel, who pray toward this place; and you, listen in the place where you live, in the heavens; and listen and forgive.

• 1 Kings 8:34

  then you listen in the heavens, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave to their fathers.

• 1 Kings 8:36

  then you listen in the heavens, and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel, for you instruct them in the good way in which they should walk; and give rain on your land that you have given to your people as an inheritance.

• 1 Kings 8:39

  then you listen in the heavens, the place where you live, and forgive, and act, and give to each according to all his ways, whose heart you know — for you alone know the heart of all human beings —

• 1 Kings 8:50

  and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions that they have transgressed against you; and grant them mercy before their captors, that they may have mercy on them;

• 2 Kings 5:18

  In this matter may YHWH pardon your servant: when my master goes into the house of Rimmon to bow down there, and he leans on my hand, and I bow down in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down in the house of Rimmon, may YHWH pardon your servant in this matter.”

• 2 Kings 24:4

  and also for the innocent blood that he had shed; for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and YHWH was not willing to forgive.

• 2 Chronicles 6:21

  And listen to the supplications of your servant and of your people Israel, who pray toward this place; and you, listen from the place where you live, from the heavens; and listen and forgive.

• 2 Chronicles 6:25

  then you listen from the heavens and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them back to the land that you gave to them and to their fathers.

• 2 Chronicles 6:27

  then you listen in the heavens and forgive the sin of your servants and of your people Israel, for you instruct them in the good way in which they should walk; and give rain on your land that you gave to your people as an inheritance.

• 2 Chronicles 6:30

  then you listen from the heavens, the place where you live, and forgive, and give to each according to all his ways, whose heart you know —for you alone know the heart of human beings—

• 2 Chronicles 6:39

  then listen from the heavens, from the place where you live, their prayer and their supplications, and do justice for them, and forgive your people who have sinned against you.

• 2 Chronicles 7:14

  and my people, over whom my name is called, humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from the heavens and forgive their sin and heal their land.

• Psalms 25:11

  For the sake of your name, YHWH, forgive my iniquity, for it is great.

• Psalms 103:3

  who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases,

• Isaiah 55:7

  Let the wicked abandon his way, and the man of wickedness his thoughts; and let him return to YHWH, and he will have compassion on him; and to our Elohim, for he will abound in forgiving.”

• Jeremiah 5:1

  Roam through the streets of Jerusalem, and look, please, and know, and search in its squares, if you can find a man, if there is one who does justice, who seeks faithfulness, and I will pardon her.

• Jeremiah 5:7

  “Why should I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by what is not Elohim. I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and at the house of a prostitute they crowded together.

• Jeremiah 31:34

  And no longer will they teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know YHWH,’ for all of them will know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares YHWH; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will not remember anymore.”

• Jeremiah 33:8

  And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against me, and I will forgive all their iniquities by which they have sinned against me, and by which they have transgressed against me.

And 7 more times.