ekballō

The most common use of this verb is removal by force or authority. In the Gospels this covers the full range of Jesus' confrontations with hostile forces: expelling unclean spirits from those they possess, clearing the temple of traders, and throwing dishonest workers out of a vineyard. The compulsion may be divine power (exorcism), physical force (the temple cleansing), social authority (expulsion from a synagogue), or judgment (being cast into darkness).

The exorcism sense is the dominant one in the Synoptics. Jesus' opponents do not deny that he drives out demons but dispute the source of his power, and the debate turns on who or what stands behind the act. The same verb covers Satan's kingdom expelling its own (Mark 3:23) and Jesus announcing that the ruler of this world will be driven out at the cross (John 12:31).

Expulsion from a community (John 9:34-35, 3 John 1:10) and being thrown into punishment (Matthew 8:12, 22:13) share the same spatial logic: someone who belongs inside is put outside by the action of a superior authority. Revelation 11:2 uses the word in the special sense of leaving a space unmeasured, that is, deliberately excluding it.

A lighter sense of the same verb appears when the focus is on purposeful sending rather than violent removal. The harvest prayer of Matthew 9:38 and Luke 10:2 asks the Lord to send out workers into his harvest field, and the Good Shepherd leads his sheep out of the fold into pasture (John 10:4). The Spirit's driving of Jesus into the wilderness (Mark 1:12) uses the stronger register of this same sense.

The overlap with Meaning 1 is real: the verb never fully loses its thrust of compulsion or urgency. Even the dispatch of harvest workers carries the sense that they are being pushed out into an urgent need, not merely invited. James 2:25 uses the word for Rahab sending out the spies safely, a purposeful and protective dispatch.

Several passages use the verb for the act of producing or drawing something out from within, without any expulsive force against a person. The householder's scribe in Matthew 13:52 brings out old and new treasures from a storeroom. Matthew 12:35 describes the good or evil person as drawing out what is stored in the heart. The removal of a speck from someone's eye (Matthew 7:4-5, Luke 6:42) is the same extractive sense.

Acts 27:38 uses it for throwing cargo overboard from a ship, which sits between Meanings 1 and 3: cargo is not a person being expelled, but it is thrown out with urgency to lighten the vessel. Matthew 15:17 uses the passive for food that goes out into the drain, a natural process rather than a commanded act.