Hebrew word · H2848
חִתּוּל
chitul
bandage
This word appears only here in the Bible. It comes from the verb chatal, to wrap or swaddle, which is used of swaddling a newborn in Ezek 16:4 and Job 38:9. It means a wrapping or bandage for a wound. Some interpreters think it was a wrapping that held a splint (HALOT: “bandage”).
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
bandage
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 Ezekiel 30:21
- Range of meaning
This word appears only here in the Bible. It comes from the verb chatal, to wrap or swaddle, which is used of swaddling a newborn in Ezek 16:4 and Job 38:9. It means a wrapping or bandage for a wound. Some interpreters think it was a wrapping that held a splint (HALOT: “bandage”).
- Against the English
KJV says “roller”, an older English word for a rolled strip of bandage. WEB and YLT say “bandage”. BSB says “splinted”, and other modern versions say “splint” or “cast”. The Hebrew says wrapping; a splint is a reasonable guess from the medical setting, not something the word itself states.
- How it drifted
The KJV's “roller” was clear medical English in 1611 (a “roller bandage”) but is opaque or misleading to modern readers.
- Used elsewhere in the period
The related verb in Ezek 16:4 describes the abandoned infant Jerusalem: “nor were you swaddled at all” (hochtel lo' chutalt). Ezekiel therefore uses this root twice for care that was withheld.
Where it appears
Ezekiel · 1
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Ezekiel 30:21 חִתּ֛וּל a bandage
“Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. See, it has not been bound up for healing, or splinted for strength to hold the sword.
Here: This word occurs only here in the Bible. It comes from the root for wrapping or swaddling a baby, so it means a wound wrapping, possibly one that holds a splint in place.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.