H4963 H4963
straw-heap, dung-hill; pile of refuse or trampled straw
Isaiah uses this contemptuous image in a taunt against Moab: they will be trampled down in their place as straw is trampled in a dung-heap. The word evokes a pile of refuse, worthless material beaten down and left to rot. It's among Isaiah's most graphic images of judgment—not just defeat but utter humiliation, being treated as garbage to be trampled underfoot. The agricultural imagery would have been immediately clear to the original audience familiar with straw-strewn manure piles.
Senses
1. sense 1 — A heap of straw mixed with dung or refuse, used in Isaiah 25:10 in a simile of Moab's humiliation. The image is of straw trampled down into a dung-heap, worthless material beaten into waste. The comparison emphasizes not just defeat but degradation—being treated as refuse, trampled and left in filth. Spanish 'paja' (straw) identifies the material, though the full sense includes the refuse pile context. This is one of prophecy's harshest images: not defeated in battle but trampled like garbage in its own place, unable to escape the humiliation. The agricultural setting makes the contempt viscerally clear. 1×
AR["التِّبْنِ"]·ben["খড়"]·DE["[מתבן]"]·EN["straw"]·FR["[מתבן]"]·heb["מתבן"]·HI["भूसे-का"]·ID["jerami"]·IT["[מתבן]"]·jav["jerami"]·KO["짚을"]·PT["palha"]·RU["соломы"]·ES["paja"]·SW["kwa-majani"]·TR["samanin"]·urd["بھوسے-کو"]
Related Senses
H3754 1. vineyard, cultivated grape plot (92×)H0730 1. cedar tree or wood (73×)H1612 1. vine, grapevine (55×)H3293a 1. forest, wood, thicket (55×)H5560 1. fine flour (53×)H5193 1. plant vegetation (48×)H2232 1. sow seed, plant crops (41×)H1715 1. grain, cereal crop (40×)H7114b 1. reap, harvest grain (36×)H2132 1. olive tree (34×)H8184 1. barley (34×)H2406 1. wheat (grain crop) (30×)H7070 1. reed, cane (plant) (30×)H7848 1. acacia (28×)H8328 1. root of a plant (28×)H8384 1. fig tree (25×)H5488 1. reeds, rushes (in 'Sea of Reeds') (24×)G0290 1. a vineyard (23×)G2325 1. reap, harvest a crop (21×)G4687 1. sow seed, plant (21×)
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† מַתְבֵּן n.[m.] straw-heap;—מ׳ Is 25:10.