# Matthew 6.12

<!-- type: passage | created: 2026-05-31 | updated: 2026-05-31 -->

**Book:** [Matthew](/codex/matthew-the-apostle/) · ASV

## Immediate context (±2 verses)

**ASV** ([ASV](/codex/asv/))
> 10. <span class="rl-speech">Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.</span> 11. <span class="rl-speech">Give us this day our daily bread.</span>
>
> **12. <span class="rl-speech">And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.</span>**
>
> 13. <span class="rl-speech">And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.</span> 14. <span class="rl-speech">For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.</span> (Matthew 6:10-14, ASV)

**WEB** ([WEB](/codex/web/))
> 10. <span class="rl-speech">Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done, as in heaven, so on earth.</span> 11. <span class="rl-speech">Give us today our daily bread.</span>
>
> **12. <span class="rl-speech">Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.</span>**
>
> 13. <span class="rl-speech">Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the Kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.’</span> 14. <span class="rl-speech">“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.</span> (Matthew 6:10-14, WEB)

**KJV** ([KJV](/codex/kjv/))
> 10. <span class="rl-speech">Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.</span> 11. <span class="rl-speech">Give us this day our daily bread.</span>
>
> **12. <span class="rl-speech">And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.</span>**
>
> 13. <span class="rl-speech">And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.</span> 14. <span class="rl-speech">For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:</span> (Matthew 6:10-14, KJV)

**YLT** ([YLT](/codex/ylt/))
> 10. <span class="rl-speech">'Thy reign come: Thy will come to pass, as in heaven also on the earth.</span> 11. <span class="rl-speech">'Our appointed bread give us to-day.</span>
>
> **12. <span class="rl-speech">'And forgive us our debts, as also we forgive our debtors.</span>**
>
> 13. <span class="rl-speech">'And mayest Thou not lead us to temptation, but deliver us from the evil, because Thine is the reign, and the power, and the glory, to the ages. Amen.</span> 14. <span class="rl-speech">'For, if ye may forgive men their trespasses He also will forgive you, your Father who [is] in the heavens;</span> (Matthew 6:10-14, YLT)

## Setting

- **Speaker:** Jesus, teaching the disciples the model prayer within the Sermon on the Mount
- **Audience:** the disciples (proximately) and the larger crowd (Mt 5:1; 7:28)
- **Location:** the mountain in Galilee where the Sermon on the Mount is delivered
- **Time period:** early in the Galilean ministry, c. AD 28-29

## Theological reading

Matthew 6:12 is the **forgiveness petition** of the Lord's Prayer, deploying the verb [*aphiēmi*](/codex/g0863-aphiemi/) (G863), "to forgive, release, send away", under a debt-metaphor that the immediate sequel (vv. 14-15) and the parallel parable ([Matt 18:21-35](/codex/matthew-18-21-22/)) develop into a covenantal structure of mutual remission. The petition is two-clause: a request (*aphes hēmin ta opheilēmata hēmōn*, "forgive us our debts") and a warrant (*hōs kai hēmeis aphēkamen tois opheiletais hēmōn*, "as we have forgiven our debtors").

The warrant-clause is not a transactional bribe, the disciple does not earn divine forgiveness by forgiving others, but a **diagnostic**: the disciple who has truly received divine forgiveness *will* extend it; the disciple who refuses to extend it has not yet received it in the way it was given (cf. the unmerciful servant of Matt 18:23-35, who is judged precisely on this failure). Jesus's own gloss in vv. 14-15 confirms the reciprocity is constitutive, not optional: *"if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."*

The Lucan parallel (Lk 11:4) substitutes *hamartias* ("sins") for Matthew's *opheilēmata* ("debts"), proving the two terms are interchangeable in Jesus's idiom, Matthew preserves the debt-metaphor that Luke renders explicit. The lexical choice underwrites the entire NT theology of forgiveness as **remission-of-debt**, which the Pauline summary at [Eph 1:7](/codex/ephesians-1-7/) / [Col 1:14](/codex/colossians-1-14/) takes up via the noun-cognate *aphesis*.

## Key words

- [G0863 - aphiemi](/codex/g0863-aphiemi/), *aphiēmi*, the load-bearing verb. The petition and the warrant use the same lexeme, lexically locking together divine and human forgiveness.
- *opheilēma* (G3783), "debt, what is owed", the metaphor through which Matthew frames the offense.

## See also

- [Matthew 18.21-22](/codex/matthew-18-21-22/), the seventy-times-seven follow-up
- [Luke 23.34](/codex/luke-23-34/), Christ's own cruciform forgiveness-prayer
- [1 John 1.9](/codex/1-john-1-9/), the apostolic absolution promise
- [Lords Prayer](/codex/lords-prayer/), the master hub for the prayer
- [Forgiveness](/codex/g0859-aphesis/), the doctrinal hub
- [G0863 - aphiemi](/codex/g0863-aphiemi/), the lexicon entry

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## Quoted in

**Arguments and defeaters:**

- [Argument from Sanctity](/codex/argument-from-sanctity/), via [Matthew 6.1-21](/codex/matthew-6-1-21/)
- [Necessity of the Incarnation](/codex/necessity-of-the-incarnation/)

**Concepts:**

- [Biblical Forgiveness](/codex/biblical-forgiveness/)
- [Jesus Said](/codex/jesus-said/), via [Matthew 6](/codex/matthew-6/)
- [Lord's Prayer](/codex/lords-prayer/), via [Matthew 6.9-13](/codex/matthew-6-9-13/)
- [Prayer](/codex/prayer/), via [Matthew 6.5-15](/codex/matthew-6-5-15/), [Matthew 6.9-13](/codex/matthew-6-9-13/)
- [Sermon on the Mount](/codex/sermon-on-the-mount/), via [Matthew 6](/codex/matthew-6/), [Matthew 6.1-18](/codex/matthew-6-1-18/), [Matthew 6.9-13](/codex/matthew-6-9-13/)

**Lexicon:**

- [G0859 - aphesis](/codex/g0859-aphesis/)
- [G0863 - aphiemi](/codex/g0863-aphiemi/)

**Passages:**

- [Ephesians 1.7](/codex/ephesians-1-7/)
- [Luke 23.34](/codex/luke-23-34/)
- [Matthew 18.21-22](/codex/matthew-18-21-22/)

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## Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the **most literal English translations available** (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the **public domain in the United States**, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

- **[ASV](/codex/asv/)** (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
- **[WEB](/codex/web/)** (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
- **[KJV](/codex/kjv/)** (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
- **[YLT](/codex/ylt/)** (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See [Bibles](/codex/bibles/) for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.