Hebrew word · H8611

תֹּ֫פֶת

vetofet

spit

This word occurs only here. Modern lexicons (BDB, HALOT) generally connect it to a root meaning 'to spit', attested in Aramaic and Syriac, giving 'spitting, spittle, one spat upon'.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

act of spitting, spit

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 Job 17:6

Range of meaning

This word occurs only here. Modern lexicons (BDB, HALOT) generally connect it to a root meaning 'to spit', attested in Aramaic and Syriac, giving 'spitting, spittle, one spat upon'. It is spelled the same as Topheth, the place of child sacrifice in the Valley of Hinnom (2 Kgs 23:10; Jer 7:31), but most scholars think the two words are unrelated.

Against the English

BSB, WEB, ESV, NASB, NIV and NLT all go with spitting. KJV's 'tabret' (a small drum) linked it with tōp, 'drum, tambourine'. Young's Literal Translation's 'wonder' and the Vulgate's 'example' are guesses from context. The Septuagint's 'laughingstock' captures the scorn but not the image.

How it drifted

This is a case of real uncertainty, not of an English word drifting. The KJV followed a line of medieval Jewish interpretation that tied the word to 'drum'. Modern Hebrew study, with more Aramaic comparison and the parallel in Job 30:10, has moved firmly to 'spitting'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The closest parallel is Job's own words in 30:10: 'they do not hold back from spitting (rōq) in my face'. Spitting in the face as an act of public shaming appears in Numbers 12:14, Deuteronomy 25:9 and Isaiah 50:6.

Where it appears

Job · 1

  1. Job 17:6 וְתֹ֖פֶת and a spitting

    He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.

    Here: 'And a spitting.' The noun occurs only here and most likely comes from a root meaning 'spit', known from Aramaic. Job does not say only that people spit at him. He says he has become the thing spat at, as if he were the spitting itself.

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