When one person injures another, the Bible states that the damager must pay “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…” (Ex. 21:24). Of course, the rabbis teach (Bava Kamma 83b-84a) that this does not refer to any sort of actual bodily payment, but rather to monetary compensation. That Biblical verse continues to list further examples of payments which are assessed as commensurate with the bodily damage done, “…a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound [petza], and a wound for a wound [chaburah]” (Ex. 21:24–25). In this passage, two different words for “wound” are used — petza and chaburah. Similarly, after Lemech accidently murdered his ancestor Cain and his son Tubal-Cain, he said to his wives, “For a man I have killed by my wound [petza] / And a child, with my wound [chaburah]” (Gen. 4:23). In that passage as well, the two words for “wound” — petza and chaburah — appear side-by-side, as they do in several other cases (Isa. 1:6, Prov. 20:30). This essay explores these two Hebrew synonyms, as well as the Hebrew verb chovel in the sense of “wounding/injury” another person.

Rashi (to Ex. 21:25) clarifies the difference between petza and chaburah by explaining that petza refers to a wound that bleeds due to an opening in one’s epidermis, while chaburah refers to a wound by which blood collects underneath the surface of one’s skin, but does not come out (thus leaving a red mark on one’s exterior). The Vilna Gaon (to Isa. 1:6, Prov. 20:30) similarly explains that petza refers to an “open wound” or “bleeding laceration,” while chaburah refers to a “bruise.”

In light of Rashi’s explanation, Malbim (to Isa. 1:6) and Rabbi Shlomo Aharon Wertheimer (1866–1935) write that the word chaburah is related to the term chibbur (“connection/attachment”) in reference to the pooling of blood beneath the skin. When the prophet Jeremiah rhetorically asks whether a leopard/tiger change its “spots” (Jer. 13:23), the word used to denote those “spots” is chavarburot. Ibn Saruk, Ibn Janach, and Radak explain that this word is a declension of the word chaburah, as it too denotes a discoloration of the skin’s surface.

This explanation can also help us situate the word chaburah within the greater context of words derived from the triliteral root CHET-BET-REISH, which include chibbur (“connection/attachment,” borrowed to also mean “book/compilation”), chaver (“friend”), and chover (“charmer”). The common denominator among all these various derivatives is the concept of “connection/attachment,” as chaverim are “connected” to each through their shared affinity, and a chover has the ability to use charm groups of animals to “gather and join together” at his beck and call. In a similar way, chaburah in the sense of “bruise” specifically denotes the “gathering together” of........

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