# forgiven



## elroy

Hi,

How would you translate "forgiven" in reference to a person?  Does מחול work, or does that refer to actions?  And how common is that meaning of מחול, anyway?  It appears to me that the most common meaning of the word is a type of dance.

Just to clarify, I'm interested in a translation of "forgiven" in isolation, not as part of a sentence like "He has been forgiven."

Any ideas?


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## origumi

מחול makhul (forgiven, root מחל) is rarely used but would be understood. No confusion with מחול makhol (dance, root חול).

I cannot think about a better single word - an active form is usually preferred, for example זכה למחילה.


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## yuval9

נמחל לו
נסלח לו
מחול refers to the action itself, not to the person.


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## Sidjanga

Hi,





elroy said:


> How would you translate "forgiven" in reference to a person? (...)
> 
> Just to clarify, I'm interested in a translation of "forgiven" in isolation, not as part of a sentence (...)


In what contexts would you use it like that?


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## elroy

yuval9 said:


> מחול refers to the action itself, not to the person.


 That's what I suspected.  So you can't say אני מחול, can you? 





Sidjanga said:


> Hi,In what contexts would you use it like that?


 A tattoo.


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## Nunty

Oh good grief how nice, a tattoo. 

No, you can't say אני מחול or אני נסלח. But if you are willing to go for two words, you could go for something like נסלח לי or (if my guess at context is correct) נסלחו חטאותי.


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## amikama

...Or נמחלו עוונותי. Or just נמחלתי.

Does it have to do with the Christian concept of forgiveness? I think that in Judaism the concept is different, and therefore it's hard to give an exact translation.


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## Nunty

כן? היית אומר "נמחלתי"? וגם "נסלחתי"?


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## amikama

nunty said:


> כן? היית אומר "נמחלתי"? וגם "נסלחתי"?


במחשבה שנייה... כנראה שלא.
במחשבה חמישית ושביעית... *אולי *כן הייתי משתמש במקרים מסוימים מאוד. כגון: "סלחתי ונסלחתי, מחלתי ונמחלתי".

תני לי לחשוב על זה עוד קצת...


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