TR: râmas / mirmâs → katapatéō (Trodden Under Foot)¶
The Chain¶
Hebrew OT LXX (Greek OT) Greek NT
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רָמַס (râmas) → καταπατέω (katapatéō) → καταπατέω (katapatéō)
H7429, 19x (verb) 7x as translation 5x in NT
"tread down, trample" of râmas (primary) "trample, tread under foot"
מִרְמָס (mirmâs) → (noun forms / κατα- "treat with contempt,
H4823, 7x (masc. noun) cognates) reject with disdain"
"a trampling, a treading"
"something trodden down"
Bridge strength: râmas → katapatéō shows PMI 16.69 across 7 LXX co-occurrences — one of the highest-scoring verb alignments in the "trample" semantic field. mirmâs is the cognate noun (from the same root) and supplies the passive substantival form ("a thing to be trodden") that Dan 8:13 uses to describe the fate of the sanctuary and host. The Greek NT preserves the figure with a single verb — katapatéō — that covers both the concrete and the metaphorical senses.
OT Usage (Hebrew)¶
| Strong's | Word | POS | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H7429 | רָמַס (râmas) | verb (primitive root) | 19 | to tread upon, trample, stamp on (as a potter treading clay, as an army trampling a foe, as cattle fouling water) |
| H4823 | מִרְמָס (mirmâs) | masc. noun | 7 | a trampling; something trodden down; a place to be trampled (substantival/passive from the root) |
| H7430 | רָמַשׂ (râmas) | verb | 17 | to creep, move gently (different root שׂ vs. ס — semantically unrelated; listed only to flag homograph) |
| H1869 | דָּרַךְ (dârak) | verb | ~62 | to tread (road, winepress, bow) — related trampling verb, second-highest LXX → katapatéō source |
Canonical word studies: (none yet — H7429, H4823 pending)
Key OT passages¶
- Isaiah 10:6 — "to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down (râmas) like the mire of the streets." Assyria as God's rod; trampling = military subjugation.
- Isaiah 63:3 — "I have trodden the winepress alone… I will tread them (râmas) in mine anger, and trample them in my fury." Divine-warrior figure — God himself as the one who tramples.
- Daniel 8:7 — "he cast him down to the ground, and stamped upon him (râmas)" — the he-goat's assault on the ram; the same root that produces the passive noun two verses before the question of 8:13.
- Daniel 8:13 — "to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot (mirmâs)." The substantival noun: not the act of trampling but the sanctuary-as-trampling-ground, a thing handed over to be walked on.
- Isaiah 28:18 — "then ye shall be trodden down (mirmâs) by it" — covenant-with-death verdict; noun used predicatively.
- Isaiah 5:5 — "break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down (mirmâs)" — the vineyard parable; the vineyard becomes mirmâs, a trampling-place.
- Ezekiel 34:19 — "my flock… eat that which ye have trodden (mirmâs) with your feet" — bad-shepherd indictment; the trampled pasture as figure for Israel's mistreatment.
- Micah 7:10 — "now shall she be trodden down (mirmâs) as the mire of the streets" — eschatological reversal of shame.
LXX Bridge¶
What Greek word translates H7429 râmas in the LXX?
| Hebrew | Greek Translation | Co-occurrences | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| râmas (H7429) | καταπατέω (G2662) | 7 | 16.69 | Primary verbal equivalent — the default rendering whenever râmas describes trampling by feet |
| râmas (H7429) | πούς (G4228, "foot") | 3 | 5.51 | Collocational — Greek often renders the Hebrew verb + implied foot with an explicit "foot" noun + movement verb |
| râmas (H7429) | γῆ (G1093, "earth/ground") | 6 | 3.15 | Scene vocabulary — what is trodden |
What Hebrew words does G2662 katapatéō translate in the LXX?
| Hebrew | Word | Co-occurrences | PMI | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| H7429 | râmas (רָמַס) | 7 | 16.69 | Primary source — the lexical anchor of katapatéō in the LXX |
| H7602 | shâʼaph (שָׁאַף, "pant after, snuff up") | 3 | 10.05 | Secondary — used where shâʼaph extends to "swallow up, trample" in contexts of rapacious hostility |
| H7272 | regel (רֶגֶל, "foot") | 5 | 7.21 | Collocational — katapatéō renders clauses where "foot" is instrument |
| H1869 | dârak (דָּרַךְ, "tread") | 3 | 7.17 | Near-synonym — dârak is normally rendered πατέω/ἐπιβαίνω; katapatéō used when the sense shades toward destructive trampling |
| H1471 | gôwy (גּוֹי, "nation") | 6 | 6.01 | Object-level collocation — nations are the typical patient of katapatéō in prophetic passages |
mirmâs (H4823): The noun does not show a strong single Greek equivalent in the LXX co-occurrence index (no direct row — the noun is handled by a small cluster of Greek renderings including καταπάτημα/καταπατηθῆναι cognates of katapatéō, plus various passive constructions). What matters is that the root râm-s is consistently routed through the κατα-πατ- family, so mirmâs inherits the same Greek semantic space as the verb.
Semantic continuity: The Greek κατα-πατέω (literally "tread down") preserves the two-pronged Hebrew sense — a concrete action (feet on ground) and a metaphor of contemptuous subjugation. The κατα- prefix adds a downward/destructive force matching the Hebrew verb's characteristic violence (vs. the bare πατέω "step on," which can be neutral).
NT Usage (Greek)¶
| Strong's | Word | POS | Occurrences | Primary Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| G2662 | καταπατέω (katapatéō) | verb | 5 | to trample down; (fig.) to treat with contempt, reject with disdain |
| G3961 | πατέω (patéō) | verb | 5 | to tread, walk (base verb; Rev 11:2; 14:20; 19:15; Luke 10:19; 21:24) |
| G2663 | κατάπαυσις (katapausis) | fem. noun | 9 | rest (unrelated root — κατα-παύω — listed only to flag visual similarity) |
Key NT passages¶
- Matthew 5:13 — "it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot (katapatéō) of men." Savourless salt = discarded, trampled thing. The figure is already at work in Isa 5:5 (trampled vineyard).
- Matthew 7:6 — "lest they trample (katapatéō) them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." Swine trampling pearls — holy things profaned.
- Luke 8:5 — "some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down (katapatéō)." Seed of the word destroyed by passing feet; agricultural image matching the OT fouled-pasture motif (Ezek 34:19).
- Luke 21:24 — "Jerusalem shall be trodden down (patéō — base verb, not the κατα- compound) of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled." The great synoptic echo of Dan 8:13 and Isa 63:18 — the holy city as mirmâs, given over to Gentile feet for an appointed time.
- Hebrews 10:29 — "sorer punishment… who hath trodden under foot (katapatéō) the Son of God." Apostasy as the supreme case of contemptuous trampling — the figure reaches its sharpest theological pitch: the Son himself becomes the thing trampled.
Direct OT → NT Echoes¶
| NT Passage | OT Source | Shared Word | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luke 21:24 | Dan 8:13 (mirmâs); Isa 63:18 ("our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary") | "trodden down" (patéō / katapatéō) | Jesus' Olivet discourse reuses the sanctuary-trampling vocabulary of Daniel's question-of-the-saints; Jerusalem is now the mirmâs, handed over for a bounded time — the prophetic pattern from Dan 8 reapplied. |
| Heb 10:29 | Dan 8:11–13 (the horn's trampling of sanctuary/host); Zech 12:3 (burdensome stone LXX katapatoumenē) | katapatéō | Apostasy assimilated to the little-horn profile: the covenant-breaker stands in the position the horn occupied — trampling the holy. |
| Mat 5:13 | Isa 5:5 (vineyard as mirmâs) | katapatéō / mirmâs | Discarded covenant-bearers become what the vineyard became — trampling-ground. |
| Mat 7:6 | Prov-style wisdom + Isa 1:12 ("tread my courts," râmas) | katapatéō / râmas | The trampling of holy things by unclean agents — the Isaianic rebuke repurposed as a dominical proverb. |
| Luke 8:5 | Ezek 34:19 (flock's trampled pasture, mirmâs) | katapatéō / mirmâs | Rejected word = trampled ground; reverses the bad-shepherd indictment into a parable of the many hearers. |
Continuity and Shifts¶
What stays the same across testaments: - Agent → patient structure: a hostile or contemptuous agent (nation, beast, swine, apostate) tramples a sacred or valuable object (sanctuary, vineyard, pearl, word, Son). The Hebrew and Greek vocabulary name the same relational pattern. - Trampling as covenant-reversal: Israel's worshippers "tread" God's courts (Isa 1:12) with unholy feet; the Gentiles tread Jerusalem (Luke 21:24); the apostate treads the Son (Heb 10:29). Each case is a sacred boundary violated. - Passive/substantival usage: Hebrew mirmâs ("a thing to be trodden") and Greek substantival participial constructions (τὸ καταπατούμενον, "that which is trampled") both objectify the trampled thing — a grammatical continuity preserving the fate-of-the-patient focus. - Sanctuary context: Dan 8:13 mirmâs and Luke 21:24 patéō are joined by the same eschatological logic — a bounded period during which the holy is handed over.
What shifts: - From nation to person: OT trampling operates mostly at the corporate level (sanctuary, vineyard, city, nation). NT trampling reaches its climax in the trampling of a person — the Son of God (Heb 10:29). The figure personalises as it intensifies. - From God's rod to human contempt: In Isa 10:6 and 63:3, God himself tramples (directly or via Assyria). In the NT, katapatéō almost always names human contempt toward the holy, with no corresponding divine-warrior trampling verb. The active trampler shifts from God-as-judge to humans-as-profaners. - Noun cluster loses its discrete equivalent: Hebrew has a dedicated trampling-patient noun (mirmâs); Greek expresses the same idea by participial phrasing rather than a single lexeme. The concept is preserved; the lexical compression is lost. - Eschatological specification: Dan 8:13's "how long?" question (bounded trampling of the sanctuary) is echoed by Luke 21:24's "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" — the NT adds an explicit terminus to the OT mirmâs image, converting a lamenting question into a prophetic schedule.
Generated from: gather_trace_data.py (H7429, H4823, G2662), search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lexicon, --lookup) Last updated: 2026-04-20