forgive, forgiveness

The concept of “forgiveness” is expressed in varied ways through translations. Following is a list of (back-) translations from some languages:

  • Tswa, North Alaskan Inupiatun, Panao Huánuco Quechua: “forget about”
  • Navajo (Dinė): “give back” (based on the idea that sin produces an indebtedness, which only the one who has been sinned against can restore)
  • Huichol, Shipibo-Conibo, Eastern Highland Otomi, Uduk, Tepo Krumen: “erase,” “wipe out,” “blot out”
  • Highland Totonac, Huautla Mazatec: “lose,” “make lacking”
  • Tzeltal: “lose another’s sin out of one’s heart”
  • Lahu, Burmese: “be released,” “be freed”
  • Ayacucho Quechua: “level off”
  • Yatzachi Zapotec: “cast away”
  • Chol: “pass by”
  • Wayuu: “make pass”
  • Kpelle: “turn one’s back on”
  • Chicahuaxtla Triqui: “cover over” (a figure of speech which is also employed in Hebrew, but which in many languages is not acceptable, because it implies “hiding” or “concealment”)
  • Tabasco Chontal, Huichol: “take away sins”
  • Toraja-Sa’dan, Javanese: “do away with sins”
  • San Blas Kuna: “erase the evil heart” (this and all above: Bratcher / Nida, except Tepo Krumen: Peter Thalmann in Holzhausen / Riderer 2010, p. 25f.)
  • Eggon: “withdraw the hand”
  • Mískito: “take a man’s fault out of your heart” (source of this and the one above: Kilgour, p. 80)
  • Gamale Kham: “unstring someone” (“hold a grudge” — “have someone strung up in your heart”) (source: Watters, p. 171)
  • Hawai’i Creole English: “let someone go” (source: Jost Zetzsche)
  • Cebuano: “go beyond” (based on saylo)
  • Iloko: “none” or “no more” (based on awan) (source for this and above: G. Henry Waterman in The Bible Translator 1960, p. 24ff. )
  • Tzotzil: ch’aybilxa: “it has been lost” (source: Aeilts, p. 118)
  • Suki: biaek eisaemauwa: “make heart soft” (Source L. and E. Twyman in The Bible Translator 1953, p. 91ff. )
  • Warao: “not being concerned with him clean your obonja.” Obonja is a term that “includes the concepts of consciousness, will, attitude, attention and a few other miscellaneous notions” (source: Henry Osborn in The Bible Translator 1969, p. 74ff. See other occurrences of Obojona in the Warao New Testament.)
  • Martu Wangka: “throw out badness” (source: Carl Gross)
  • Mairasi: “dismantle wrongs” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
  • Nyulnyul: “have good heart” (source )
  • Kyaka: “burn the jaw bones” — This goes back to the pre-Christian custom of hanging the jaw bones of murdered relatives on ones door frame until the time of revenge. Christians symbolically burned those bones to show forgiveness which in turn became the word for “forgiveness” (source: Eugene Nida, according to this blog )
  • Koonzime: “remove the bad deed-counters” (“The Koonzime lay out the deeds symbolically — usually strips of banana leaf — and rehearse their grievances with the person addressed.”) (Source: Keith and Mary Beavon in Notes on Translation 3/1996, p. 16)
  • Arapaho: “setting is aside” (source )
  • Ngbaka: ele: “forgive and forget” (Margaret Hill [in Holzhausen & Ridere 2010, p. 8f.] recalls that originally there were two different words used in Ngbaka, one for God (ɛlɛ) and one for people (mbɔkɔ — excuse something) since it was felt that people might well forgive but, unlike God, can’t forget. See also this lectionary in The Christian Century .
  • Amahuaca: “erase” / “smooth over” (“It was an expression the people used for smoothing over dirt when marks or drawings had been made in it. It meant wiping off dust in which marks had been made, or wiping off writing on the blackboard. To wipe off the slate, to erase, to take completely away — it has a very wide meaning and applies very well to God’s wiping away sins, removing them from the record, taking them away.”) (Source: Robert Russel, quoted in Walls / Bennett 1959, p. 193)
  • Gonja / Dangme: “lend / loan” (in the words of one Dangme scholar: “When you sin and you are forgiven, you forget that you have been forgiven, and continue to sin. But when you see the forgiveness as a debt/loan which you will pay for, you do not continue to sin, else you have more debts to pay” — quoted in Jonathan E.T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor in Ibadan Journal of Religious Studies 17/2 2010, p. 67ff. )
  • Kwere: kulekelela, meaning literally “to allow for.” Derived from the root leka which means “to leave.” In other words, forgiveness is leaving behind the offense in relationship to the person. It is also used in contexts of setting someone free. (Source: Megan Barton)
  • Merina Malagasy: mamela or “leave / let go (of sin / mistakes)” (source: Brigitte Rabarijaona)
  • Mauwake: “take away one’s heaviness” (compare sin as “heavy”) (source: Kwan Poh San in this article )

See also this devotion on YouVersion .

Translation commentary on Proverbs 17:9

“He who forgives an offense seeks love”: This line should be compared with 10.12, where “love” is said to “cover all offenses.” The motive for forgiveness is “love”, which refers here to friendly relations with others. As in 10.12, the Hebrew verb used here means “to cover.” See there for discussion and for comments on “offense”. “Seeks love” means wanting to have good social relations with others. Bible en français courant says “To forgive a wrong fosters friendship,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Whoever wishes to keep a friendship forgives offenses.” We may also say, for example, “If you wish to have friends, forgive their wrongs.”

“But he who repeats a matter alienates a friend”: This line contrasts with the first. There forgiving wrongs keeps friends, but here talking about a friend’s wrongs ruins that friendship. “Repeats a matter” means “talks repeatedly about a matter,” that is, “gossips or tells others about a friend’s faults.” Contemporary English Version has “if you keep talking about what they did wrong.” “Alienates” translates a word meaning to separate or divide. To “alienate a friend” is to make the friend become a stranger or enemy. See 16.28, where Revised Standard Version translates the same Hebrew expression as “separates close friends.” We may translate this whole saying, for example: “Whoever forgives a person’s wrongs makes friends, but whoever talks about a friend’s wrongs loses his friends.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

complete verse (Proverbs 17:9)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Proverbs 17:9:

  • Kupsabiny: “A person who forgives another (person) brings love/harmony,
    but he who clings words/things in the stomach/heart (bears a grudge), destroys friendship.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “To forgive someone’s fault
    is to deepen one’s friendship.
    If one interrogates only about blunders,
    it separates friends.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “If you (sing.) forgive your (sing.) friend who has-sinned against you (sing.), your (sing.) friendship will-remain, but if you (sing.) keep saying his sin, your (sing.) friendship will-be-destroyed.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “The one who forgives, his friends do not abandon (him), but the one who stories-about a sin of his friends, they will turn-their-backs-on him.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • English: “If you want people to like/love you, forgive them for the wrong things that they do to you.
    If you continue to remind them about those wrong things, they will no longer be your friends.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

SIL Translator’s Notes on Proverbs 17:9

17:9

Notice the parallel parts that contrast in meaning:

9a
Whoever conceals an offense promotes love,

9b but he who brings it up separates friends.

17:9a

Whoever conceals an offense: This phrase is similar to the phrase used in 10:12b. See the note there. It refers to a person who overlooks, excuses or forgives an offense or sin that another person commits against him. It is also implied from 17:9b that when a person forgives another person’s offense, he keeps quiet about it.

promotes love: In Hebrew, this phrase is literally “seeks love.” It indicates that the person who covers over an offense wants to create or preserve a friendship or loving relationship with the other person. Some other ways to translate 17:9a are:

You will keep your friends if you forgive them (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
If you want people to like you, forgive them when they wrong you. (Good News Translation)

17:9b

but he who brings it up separates friends: The phrase brings it up is ambiguous. It may indicate that:

(1) Someone reminds the offender of his offense. For example:

if you remind them of what they did wrong, you will destroy your friendship

(2) Someone gossips about the offender’s offense to others. For example:

but gossiping about the sin breaks up friendships (New Century Version)

It is recommended that you translate in a way that will allow either meaning, as the Berean Standard Bible and Contemporary English Version have done. For example:

you will lose your friends if you keep talking about what they did wrong (Contemporary English Version)

If you cannot maintain this ambiguity in your language, you may translate either of the more specific meanings. Both fit the context well.

For the phrase separates friends, see the note on 16:28a–b.

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