Hebrew word · H2950

טָפַל

vatitpol

to smear

To smear, plaster, coat over. Used only three times in the Hebrew Bible, and every time figuratively: Job 13:4 ('you are smearers of lies,' ṭōpəlê-šeqer), Job 14:17 ('you plaster over my iniquity,' meaning God covers it up), and here.

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

What it means

(Qal) to smear, plaster over, stick, glue

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 119:69

Range of meaning

To smear, plaster, coat over. Used only three times in the Hebrew Bible, and every time figuratively: Job 13:4 ('you are smearers of lies,' ṭōpəlê-šeqer), Job 14:17 ('you plaster over my iniquity,' meaning God covers it up), and here. The picture comes from coating a wall with plaster or paste, where what you see is the coating and not the surface underneath.

Against the English

BSB, WEB, ESV, NIV and NLT keep the picture ('smear'). KJV, YLT and NASB have 'forged a lie,' which means 'fabricated.' That is fair as a meaning but drops the image of a coat of lies spread over a person.

How it drifted

'Smear' in modern English ('a smear campaign') happens to fit the Hebrew very well. 'Forged' in the KJV meant 'invented, made up,' and a modern reader may hear only 'counterfeit' and miss the image.

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 13:4 uses the same verb with the same noun (ṭāpal + šeqer), so 'smearing lies' was an established expression. HALOT also notes an Akkadian verb ṭapālu, 'to slander, discredit,' which suggests the word already had a link to defaming people in Semitic languages.

From the study of Job 13:4

Range of meaning

To smear, daub or plaster something over a surface. That can be plastering a wall, smearing a coating on, or covering something over (figuratively). The verb is rare: Job 13:4, Job 14:17 and Psalm 119:69.

Against the English

KJV, WEB and YLT have 'forgers of lies'. BSB and NASB have 'smear with lies'. ESV has 'whitewash with lies'. NIV and NLT add an object, 'smear me with lies'. 'Smear' and 'plaster' keep the physical picture. 'Forgers' drops it.

How it drifted

'Forgers of lies' comes from the Latin tradition (Vulgate 'fabricatores mendacii', 'fabricators of falsehood'). In 1611 'forge' meant to fabricate or make up. Today 'forger' suggests a counterfeiter of signatures or banknotes, and the plastering picture disappears.

Used elsewhere in the period

Psalm 119:69 uses the same pairing, 'the arrogant have smeared lies over me' (taflu 'alai sheqer), where the sense is slander coated over a person. Job 14:17 uses it of God 'plastering over' (covering) Job's iniquity. Later Aramaic and Hebrew use related forms for plastering and attaching. Some scholars point to Akkadian ṭapālu, 'to insult, slander' (see debates).

Where it appears

Job · 2

  1. Job 13:4 טֹֽפְלֵי־ [are] smearers of

    You, however, smear with lies; you are all worthless physicians.

    Here: A participle used as a noun, 'smearers of / plasterers of'. It is a picture of daubing a coat over something: plaster on a wall, ointment on a wound. Their words are a coating spread over Job's case that covers it without dealing with it.

  2. Job 14:17 וַ֝תִּטְפֹּ֗ל and you have smeared

    My transgression would be sealed in a bag, and You would cover over my iniquity.

Psalms · 1

  1. Psalm 119:69 טָפְל֬וּ they have smeared

    Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep Your precepts with all my heart.

    Here: Literally to coat a surface with plaster or paste. The arrogant have spread a layer of lies over the psalmist, covering who he really is so that people see the false coating. The verb also opens the line with the letter ṭet, which every verse of this eight-verse section (vv. 65–72) must start with. The Hebrew past form shows the slander has already been done.

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