Hebrew word · H1848

דֳּפִי

dofi

slander

This word appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from context, from later Hebrew and from the ancient translations. Later (rabbinic) Hebrew uses dofi for a blemish, defect or flaw, including a flaw of character or reputation.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated November 09, 2026

What it means

a blemish, fault

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 Psalm 50:20

Range of meaning: This word appears nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible, so its meaning has to be worked out from context, from later Hebrew and from the ancient translations. Later (rabbinic) Hebrew uses dofi for a blemish, defect or flaw, including a flaw of character or reputation. The meaning that best fits here is a fault or stain attributed to someone. Older lexicons (BDB, HALOT) give "blemish, fault," and here, by extension, "slander." The root is uncertain. One proposal ties it to a verb meaning "to push or thrust," which would give "a shove, something that makes a person fall."
Against the English: BSB, KJV and WEB all have "slander" as a verb ("you slander"). This folds "give" and "blemish" into one English word. YLT keeps the Hebrew shape: "givest slander." The English "slander" captures the result, damaging speech. It loses the concrete picture of laying a mark or defect on a person, as one might maim a body.
Used elsewhere in the period: Only here in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek translation of the Psalms (Septuagint, Ps 49:20) renders the phrase "you set a skandalon," a trap-stick or stumbling block. The Latin Vulgate follows with "scandalum." The closest Hebrew parallel to the full phrase is Leviticus 24:19–20: "if a man puts a blemish (yitten mum) on his neighbour... as he has put a blemish on a person, so shall it be put on him." That law concerns bodily injury.

Where it appears

Psalms · 1

Psalm 50:20 דֹּֽפִי׃ a fault

You sit and malign your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.

Here: "A blemish, a fault." This is the only place the word appears in the Hebrew Bible. Later Hebrew uses it for a defect or flaw. Here it is a stain on a brother's name, put there by talk. The early Greek translation read it as a "stumbling block."

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