1 Kings 8:50 · World English Bible
and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them
Khama: Forbearance, forgiveness Solomon asks that the whole ledger of transgressions be released, not audited line by line. Forgiveness here is a laying down of the grudge on both sides, the captor's and the captive's, the way a man sets down a heavy load he has carried too long and feels his shoulders lift.
From the Buddhism reading below.
The same verse, read by one tradition.
BUDDHISM
Khama: Forbearance, forgiveness
Solomon asks that the whole ledger of transgressions be released, not audited line by line. Forgiveness here is a laying down of the grudge on both sides, the captor's and the captive's, the way a man sets down a heavy load he has carried too long and feels his shoulders lift. When the debt is dropped, the chain between the wronged and the wrong-doer falls open.
Karuṇā: Compassion
The prayer asks that captors feel for their captives, that the heart of the stronger soften toward the weaker. This is the wish for another's suffering to ease, arising even in the one who caused it. Like a jailer who looks at the prisoner's face and cannot turn away, the hard heart begins to bend.
Vera: Enmity, the held grudge
Captivity breeds a settled hatred that outlasts the war that made it. Solomon prays this standing enmity be dissolved from both ends at once, for hate answered by hate never runs dry. Only when one side stops feeding the fire does the old smoke finally clear.
Averā: Freedom from hatred
The mercy asked for reaches past a truce into full release, the state where the grudge simply no longer lives in the chest. A people who have wronged their God and been carried off can still come to rest in this, held by nothing they once did. Here the aim of every pardon is named: a heart at last unhooked from what was done to it and by it.
Mettā: Loving-kindness
Under the plea for compassion runs the plain wish that these captives be treated well, that goodwill flow toward those who deserve it least. This is warmth extended without first weighing the account. It is the small steady lamp Solomon asks be lit even in the house of the enemy.
Buddhism lens
What am I still itemizing that I could simply let go of?
Settling a grievance usually leaves resentment on both sides, so the wise person holds no tally against anyone. Where there is no ledger, there is nothing left to collect.
The best answer to someone who wronged you is simply not to become like them. Holding the grudge hands them a second victory you did not have to give.
Once a year the whole community is asked to clear accounts with each other before anything else, releasing what is owed rather than itemizing it. Forgiveness is treated as a thing you do on purpose, not a feeling you wait for.
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Buddhism