body
wound
פצע · חבורה · חובל · חברבורות
Bottom line
Petza is an open wound, a laceration that breaks the skin and bleeds; chaburah is a bruise, blood pooled under skin that stayed whole (Rashi to Shemos 21:25, and the Gra). Chovel is the Rabbinic verb, to injure. The pair stands in one pasuk four times (Bereishis 4:23; Shemos 21:25; Yeshayahu 1:6; Mishlei 20:30), so rendering both "wound" erases the distinction the Torah drew. Rav Saadia Gaon and the Rashbam divide the pair on other lines entirely.
At a glance
| Hebrew | translit | English | what sets it apart |
|---|---|---|---|
| פצע | petza | open wound, laceration | skin opened, blood comes out (Rashi, Gra); a sharp instrument |
| חבורה | chaburah | bruise, contusion | blood gathers under unbroken skin (Rashi); from chibbur (Malbim) |
| חובל | chovel | to injure | Rabbinic verb; root ח-ב-ל, "pain," "damage" |
| חברבורות | chavarburos | spots | leopard's markings, same root as chaburah |
Where the authorities disagree
Rashi and the Gra: petza is the wound that bleeds out through an opening in the skin; chaburah is the wound where blood collects underneath and does not emerge, showing as a red mark (Rashi to Shemos 21:25; Gra to Yeshayahu 1:6 and Mishlei 20:30). The Bottom line follows this, both as the standard reading and because the etymology of petza supports it.
Rav Saadia Gaon, cited by Ibn Ezra (long commentary to Shemos 21:25): the reverse of what one would expect. Petza is a broken bone, chaburah the bleeding wound. Ibn Ezra repeats it in his short commentary and to Yeshayahu 1:6, adding that chaburah means "attachment" in the sense of fluid attached to the wound, pus and the signs of infection (compare Rashi to Iyov 9:17).
Rashbam (to Shemos 21:25): both are open wounds and the difference is severity. Petza is the graver laceration, "the strike of a sword"; chaburah the slighter, "with his finger or something insubstantial."
Rashi against himself. To I Melachim 20:37 he appears to equate the two, and his definitions of petza shift: sword or arrow (Bereishis 4:23), sword or knife (Yevamos 75a), any weapon (Shir HaShirim 5:7), sword (Sanhedrin 37b, Avodah Zarah 28a). The thread is something sharp, which is why "open wound" holds throughout.
The root of chaburah. Two opposite accounts. Either from ח-ב-ר as "connection," the blood gathering beneath the skin (Malbim to Yeshayahu 1:6; Wertheimer), the sense that also yields chibbur, chaver and chover; or the same root in its opposite sense, "splitting," the body split open and no longer held closed. The second fits Rav Saadia Gaon and the Rashbam, not Rashi.
Distinctions
petza (פצע)
Root technically פ-צ-ע, but generally derived from פ-צ-ה, potzeh, "to open," on the interchange of ayin and hei: the ground opened for Kayin's burial (Bereishis 4:11) and to swallow Korach's men (Devarim 11:6). Malbim, Wertheimer, Rabbi Moshe Ashkenazi-Tedeschi (Otzar Nirdafim §27) and Rav Hirsch all take it so, and Rav Hirsch sharpens it: both are a forced opening, the ground having no more choice than the man left with a petza. Ibn Janach and Radak define petza with bokea, "breaking open." Rav Hirsch elsewhere (to Shemos 18:21) ties petza to betza, "bribe," on the interchange of pei and beis: each gains the advantage in a zero-sum encounter, the bribe in court and the wound in combat.
chaburah (חבורה)
Rashi: blood collected beneath an unbroken surface. Yirmiyahu 13:23 asks whether a leopard can change its chavarburos, which Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach and Radak read as a declension of chaburah, a discoloration of the skin. Rambam (Hilchos Shabbos 8:7) sets chovel and chaburah side by side, the bruise as the product of the injuring.
chovel (חובל)
Absent from Tanach, standard in Rabbinic Hebrew: one who injures another and owes the five payments (Bava Kamma 8:1), and the melachah of wounding any living creature that has skin on Shabbos (Shabbos 14:1). The root ח-ב-ל carries plotting, rope, lot, pledge, a group of people, pain, and damage; the last two are the likeliest parents here, and Rabbinic chaval, "a pity," belongs with them. Rabbi Yaakov Berger of Kiryat Sefer (Milon Leshon Mikra, unpublished) holds ח-ב-ל and ח-ב-ר are one root, on the interchange of lamed and reish, noting Rashi to Yeshayahu 1:7 and Shir HaShirim 5:7; he adds candidly that he knows no earlier authority who says so.
Rendering guidance
- Trap: English "wound" absorbs both. Where they stand together, render "a laceration for a laceration, a bruise for a bruise" (Shemos 21:25).
- Lemech's boast (Bereishis 4:23) puts the pair in parallel stichs; keep two distinct English nouns so the parallelism survives.
- Where a source follows Rav Saadia Gaon rather than Rashi, petza must be "fracture" and chaburah the bleeding wound. Check which view the sefer in hand is working with before translating the pasuk.
- Chovel in a halachic passage is "one who injures" or "wounding," not "bruising"; the bruise is the chaburah that results.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Mishpatim: Bruisers and Bleeders," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 1 Adar Alef 5784 (2024-02-10): raw text in sources/whats-in-a-word/raw/11252-mishpatim-bruisers-and-bleeders.md. Primary loci cited: Shemos 18:21, 21:24-25; Bereishis 4:11, 4:23; Devarim 11:6; Yeshayahu 1:6-7; Yirmiyahu 13:23; Mishlei 20:30; Iyov 9:17; Shir HaShirim 5:7; I Melachim 20:37; Bava Kamma 8:1, 83b-84a; Shabbos 14:1; Yevamos 75a; Sanhedrin 37b; Avodah Zarah 28a; Rambam Hilchos Shabbos 8:7; Otzar Nirdafim §27; Bikkurei Ittim vol. 9 pp. 70-71. Omitted as non-traditional: Yitzchak Ber Levinsohn's derivation of petza from botzea (the column identifies him as a maskil), Rabbi David Chaim Chelouche's Arabic comparison, and Dr. Yoel Florsheim's account of why Rashi's definitions vary.