Hebrew word · H6481

פָּצַע

fetzua'-

to wound

Pāṣaʿ means to bruise or wound, usually by a blow. Dakkāh/dakkā' is a noun meaning 'crushing', from the root dkʾ/dkh, 'to crush, beat small'. The phrase means 'one wounded by crushing'. The genitals are not named. The phrase is a set legal description of a man whose testicles have been crushed.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) to bruise, wound, wound by bruising

1a) (Qal) to wound by crushing

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 Deuteronomy 23:1

Range of meaning

Pāṣaʿ means to bruise or wound, usually by a blow. Dakkāh/dakkā' is a noun meaning 'crushing', from the root dkʾ/dkh, 'to crush, beat small'. The phrase means 'one wounded by crushing'. The genitals are not named. The phrase is a set legal description of a man whose testicles have been crushed. This was a common way of castrating animals and men in the ancient world, and it could also result from injury.

Against the English

The KJV's 'wounded in the stones' is accurate ('stones' was older English for testicles) but sounds odd today. The BSB's 'crushed … genitals' and the WEB's and NIV's 'emasculated by crushing' are clear. The YLT splits the phrase into 'wounded, bruised', which makes three conditions out of what Hebrew presents as one.

Used elsewhere in the period

Leviticus 22:24 bars animals that are māʿûḵ wᵉḵāṯûṯ wᵉnāṯûq wᵉḵārûṯ ('crushed, beaten, torn, cut') from being offered, and the same 'cut' verb (kārat) appears here. Leviticus 21:20 bars a priest who is mᵉrôaḥ 'āšeḵ ('crushed of testicle') from offering. The Septuagint renders the phrase θλαδίας (thladias), a technical Greek word for a man castrated by crushing. The Mishnah (Yevamot 8:2) and Talmud (b. Yevamot 75a) define it as injury to the testicles.

Where it appears

Deuteronomy · 1

  1. Deuteronomy 23:1 פְצֽוּעַ־ [one who] is wounded of

    No man with crushed or severed genitals may enter the assembly of the LORD.

    Here: A passive form, 'one who has been wounded', linked tightly to the next word: 'wounded by crushing'. The verb describes a wound or bruise from a blow (compare Genesis 4:23; Song 5:7).

1 Kings · 1

  1. 1 Kings 20:37 וּפָצֹֽעַ׃ and wounded

    Then the prophet found another man and said, “Strike me, please!” So the man struck him and wounded him,

Song of Songs · 1

  1. Song of Songs 5:7 פְצָע֑וּנִי they bruised me

    I encountered the watchmen on their rounds of the city. They beat me and bruised me; they took away my cloak, those guardians of the walls.

    Here: "They wounded me." The word means to leave an injury: a bruise or an open wound. Paired with the previous verb, it means a beating that left marks, not one shove. The Masoretic accents put the verse's main pause here.

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