Hebrew word · H2784

חַרְצֻבָּה

chartzubot

bond

A very rare word, found only here and in Psalm 73:4 ('there are no ḥartsubbot in their death', usually 'pangs' or 'bonds'). From context: tight cords, fetters, knotted bonds, perhaps with the idea of something that cuts in or constricts. Its origin is uncertain.

Appears 2 times in 2 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) bond, fetter, pang, hands

1a) bonds

1b) pangs

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 58:6

Range of meaning

A very rare word, found only here and in Psalm 73:4 ('there are no ḥartsubbot in their death', usually 'pangs' or 'bonds'). From context: tight cords, fetters, knotted bonds, perhaps with the idea of something that cuts in or constricts. Its origin is uncertain.

Against the English

'Chains' (BSB, NIV) brings to mind iron prison chains. 'Bands/bonds' (KJV, ESV, WEB) is closer to the Hebrew picture of cords and knots.

Used elsewhere in the period

The Septuagint renders the phrase 'every bond (syndesmos) of injustice'. The Vulgate has colligationes impietatis, 'bindings of ungodliness'.

From the study of Psalm 73:4

Range of meaning

Bonds, fetters, tight-drawn cords. Used figuratively, it means pains that grip and constrict. The word is always plural.

Against the English

KJV says 'bands', which is close to the literal picture but obscure today. BSB and WEB say 'struggle(s)' and NASB 'pains'. ESV says 'pangs', which keeps the sense of sharp, gripping pain. 'Struggle' can sound like inner effort or hardship in general, which is weaker than the image of being bound tight by agony.

Used elsewhere in the period

It occurs only twice in the Hebrew Bible. Isaiah 58:6 has 'loose the ḥarṣubbôt of wickedness', alongside 'undo the cords of the yoke', which fixes the literal sense as fetters or knotted bonds. Compare the 'cords of death' and 'cords of Sheol' (ḥevlê māwet) in Psalm 18:4–5 and 116:3, where the Hebrew word ḥevel means both 'cord' and 'labor pang'. The Greek Septuagint here has ananeusis ('refusal, drawing back'), which seems to be a guess.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 73:4 חַרְצֻבּ֥וֹת [are] pangs

    They have no struggle in their death; their bodies are well-fed.

    Here: A rare word, found elsewhere only in Isaiah 58:6 ('the bonds of wickedness'). It pictures something tight and binding. Applied to dying, it means the cramping, tightening agony that grips a person, like the 'cords of death' in other psalms.

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 58:6 חַרְצֻבּ֣וֹת [the] bonds of

    Isn’t this the fast that I have chosen: to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and tear off every yoke?

    Here: A rare word (elsewhere only Ps 73:4) for tight bonds or fetters. Here it means the restraints by which people are held.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.