This verb means to lay prostrate, strike down, or spread out on the ground. First Corinthians 10:5 states that God was not pleased with most of the wilderness generation, 'for they were laid low in the wilderness.' The aorist passive indicates they received the action—God struck them down. Classical usage shows spreading out a bed, being strewn with corpses (passive), or laying low in judgment. All translation witnesses preserve the violent overthrow imagery. Paul references the multiple judgments in Numbers-Deuteronomy where Israelite rebels died in the desert, their bodies literally spread across the wilderness.