A verb meaning to crush, oppress, or shatter. It describes violent crushing — the breaking of bones, the smashing of jars, or the systematic crushing of the oppressed poor. It appears in prophetic literature condemning oppression and in Messianic promises of liberation.
Ratsats is the word Jesus quotes from Isaiah 61 when he inaugurates his ministry in Nazareth: 'to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and... to set the oppressed free.' The Greek uses a word translating this Hebrew — the oppressed, those who are crushed down by systemic injustice and power. Jesus declares his mission is to end the crushing. This is not merely individual salvation but comprehensive liberation — the inversion of all human power structures that crush the weak. The gospel is simultaneously the most personal and most political announcement in history.