Hebrew word · H4823

מִרְמָס

mirmas

trampling

'Place of trampling, trampled thing,' from rāmas, 'to trample, tread down' (as animals trample a field, or a victor his enemy).

Appears 7 times in 7 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

1) trampling place, trampling

1a) trampling place

1b) trampling

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 Isaiah 10:6

Range of meaning

'Place of trampling, trampled thing,' from rāmas, 'to trample, tread down' (as animals trample a field, or a victor his enemy).

Against the English

Most English versions turn the noun into a verb ('to tread/trample them down'). YLT keeps the noun: 'a treading-place.'

Used elsewhere in the period

Isaiah 5:5 (God's vineyard 'shall become a trampling'); 7:25 (land left 'for the trampling of sheep'); 28:18; Micah 7:10 ('now she will be trampled like the mud of the streets').

From the study of Isaiah 28:18

Range of meaning

A trampling, or a place that has been trampled: ground beaten flat by feet or hooves, pasture stamped down by animals.

Against the English

'Trampled' (BSB), 'trodden down' (KJV), 'trampled down' (WEB, NASB), 'treading-place' (YLT). ESV and NIV 'beaten down' bring out the whip side but lose the picture of trampled ground.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 5:5 (the vineyard 'will be trampled'); 7:25 (hills become a place 'trampled by sheep'); 10:6 (Assyria sent 'to trample them down like mud in the streets'). In 28:3 Ephraim's 'proud crown' is 'trampled underfoot' (the same root).

From the study of Isaiah 5:5

Range of meaning

A trampling, or a place trampled down, from ramas 'to trample, tread'.

Against the English

'Trampled' (BSB, ESV, NIV), 'trodden down' (KJV), 'treading-place' (YLT), 'trampled ground' (NASB). All are accurate. YLT and NASB keep the sense of a place reduced to trodden ground.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 7:25 (former vineyard land becoming 'a place where cattle are let loose and sheep tread'); Isa 10:6 (God sends Assyria 'to make it a trampling like the mud of the streets'); Isa 28:18; Mic 7:10; Ezek 34:19. Compare Isa 1:12, where the people's worship is a 'trampling of my courts'.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 4

  1. Isaiah 5:5 לְמִרְמָֽס׃ <into> a trampling place

    Now I will tell you what I am about to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be consumed; I will tear down its wall, and it will be trampled.

    Here: 'For trampling': ground trodden flat by feet and hooves. Isaiah uses the same word in 10:6 for what Assyria will do to the nation ('to make it a trampling like mud in the streets').

  2. Isaiah 7:25 וּלְמִרְמַ֖ס and <into> a trampling place of

    For fear of the briers and thorns, you will no longer traverse the hills once tilled by the hoe; they will become places for oxen to graze and sheep to trample.

  3. Isaiah 10:6 מִרְמָ֖ס a trampling place

    I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.

    Here: 'A trampled thing,' ground that feet walk over. Isaiah used the same word for God's ruined vineyard (5:5).

  4. Isaiah 28:18 לְמִרְמָֽס׃ <into> a trampling place

    Your covenant with death will be dissolved, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be trampled by it.

    Here: "Into a trampled ground": land stamped flat by feet or hooves, like a vineyard with its wall torn down (5:5) or mud in the streets (10:6). The proud leaders end up as dirt under the invader's feet.

Ezekiel · 1

  1. Ezekiel 34:19 מִרְמַ֤ס [the] trampling place of

    Why must My flock feed on what your feet have trampled, and drink what your feet have muddied?’

Daniel · 1

  1. Daniel 8:13 מִרְמָֽס׃ trampling

    Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, “How long until the fulfillment of the vision of the daily sacrifice, the rebellion that causes desolation, and the surrender of the sanctuary and of the host to be trampled?”

    Here: 'A trampling-ground,' something trodden underfoot, as a vineyard is trampled by animals (Isa 5:5) or a people by its conqueror (Isa 10:6). It picks up the goat and horn imagery of trampling in 8:7 and 8:10.

Micah · 1

  1. Micah 7:10 לְמִרְמָ֖ס <into> a trampling place

    Then my enemy will see and will be covered with shame—she who said to me, “Where is the LORD your God?” My eyes will see her; at that time she will be trampled like mud in the streets.

    Here: From a verb meaning to stamp or tread down. It is the word for a vineyard with its wall broken down and trampled by animals (Isaiah 5:5), and for what Assyria meant to make of Israel (Isaiah 10:6).

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