to trample: to bring the foot down on something, crushing, subduing, or spoiling what is trodden
TranslatabilityApproximateCertaintySettled
At its root the word is the motion of the foot pressing down hard on something beneath it. Almost everywhere it carries the sense of crushing, dominating, or ruining whatever lies underneath.
The same action turns up in three settings:
an attacker or animal crushing a victim or a foe underfoot, from horses trampling Jezebel to a conquering army treading down the streets of a city
a workman treading wet clay or mortar with his feet to make it usable
careless or contemptuous treading that spoils what others need or profanes what should be left untouched
Because the picture is always the foot bearing down, the prophets reach for it as an image of conquest and judgment. To be trampled is to be utterly defeated and shamed, and to trample is to hold crushing power over another. The near-synonyms בּוּס and דָּרַךְ share the treading picture, but this word leans hardest on the crushing weight of the foot.
Nuances
1ato trample a person, foe, or place underfoot: to crush, kill, or subdue by treading
In the prophets it carries the added weight of conquest and public disgrace, so being trampled means being utterly defeated and shamedIsa 63:3Dan 8:10
Both
Both name the act of crushing something under the feet2Ki 9:33
Only trample
English "trample" always suggests careless or hostile crushing, so it does not fit the workman deliberately treading clay to shape it
“tread down”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
“tread underfoot”
Comparison data is not available for this English gloss yet.
How ramas differs from similar Hebrew words
בּוּסThe closest synonym, also meaning to trample down, often of treading enemies or mire into the ground; the two overlap heavily, with this word leaning toward the crushing weight of the foot.
Foregrounds the literal foot or hoof stamping down, and is used of animals: a lion and a snake trodden underfoot, horses' hooves crushing the streets, a beast stamping its victim into the dirt.Psa 91:13Ezk 26:11Dan 8:7
Covers the workaday stamping of the feet in labor: treading wet clay into mortar the way a potter does.Isa 41:25Nam 3:14
Describes fouling a place by treading through it, spoiling clean water and good pasture underfoot.Ezk 34:18
Both
Both crush whole peoples underfoot in God's wrath, and Isaiah 63 reaches for one and then the other within the same winepress oracle.Isa 63:6Isa 63:3
Both are used of a defeated enemy trodden down into the ground.Isa 14:25Isa 26:6
Pictures treading foes down as the image of triumph: the confident boast that God lets his people crush those who rise up against them.Psa 44:5Psa 60:12Zec 10:5
Names the crushed, abandoned state itself: an infant left weltering in its own blood, or a corpse trodden into the ground.Ezk 16:6Ezk 16:22Isa 14:19
דָּרַךְMeans to tread as in walking or marching, and to press a winepress or bend a bow by treading; it is purposeful stepping, where this word is trampling underfoot to crush.
Means to stamp or press something down flat with the feet, with no idea of going anywhere: treading clay into mortar for bricks, or livestock fouling water and pasture underfoot.Nam 3:14Ezk 34:18
Describes being crushed underfoot in a press of many feet, as when an officer is trodden to death in the crowded gateway of the city.2Ki 7:172Ki 7:20
Both
Both describe treading a foe down underfoot in triumph or judgment, and the two verbs stand side by side for it: the believer treads the lion and tramples the serpent, and the LORD treads the nations like a winepress and tramples them in wrath.Psa 91:13Isa 63:3
Means to walk or march along a road, and to take possession of land by setting foot on it, a forward movement that H7429 never carries.Jos 1:3Deu 11:24
Used for guiding someone along a path, a figurative sense of leading a person in the right way that has no counterpart in H7429.Psa 25:9Psa 119:35
Names the fixed idiom of bending a war-bow by treading on it with the foot, an action H7429 is never used for.Psa 7:12Jer 46:9
Is the ordinary word for treading grapes in the winepress to press out wine, the routine harvest work that H7429 never describes.Isa 16:10Amo 9:13
דּוּשׁMeans to thresh grain by treading it or dragging a sledge over it; its treading has the aim of separating grain, unlike the crushing or spoiling force of this word.
the act of stamping something down under foot or hoof, often as an act of contempt or humiliation2Ki 9:33Psa 91:13Dan 8:7
used of working soft material with the feet, treading clay or mortar into shapeIsa 41:25Nam 3:14
describes fouling or spoiling something simply by tramping over it, with no product in viewEzk 34:18Isa 1:12
Both
both picture a conqueror or God crushing enemies under foot in wrath, so translators reach for "trample" or "tread down" for eitherHab 3:12Isa 63:3Isa 26:6
belongs to the threshing floor: driving oxen or a sledge over cut grain to break the kernels loose from the stalk and huskDeu 25:4Isa 28:27Isa 28:28
pictures a work animal happily treading out grain, an image of ease and reward rather than of violenceHos 10:11Jer 50:11
as a judgment image it keeps the threshing tool in view: enemies beaten apart with iron threshing sledges the way a harvest is worked overAmo 1:3Mic 4:13Isa 41:15
Its home is violence done to a living body: a crowd, a horse, or a beast crushing a person or an animal underfoot in defeat or contempt.2Ki 7:172Ki 9:332Ki 14:9Dan 8:7
Used for fouling or desecrating ground that should have been treated as sacred or spared: worshippers tramping through the temple courts, well fed sheep churning up the pasture and the water left for the rest of the flock.Isa 1:12Ezk 34:18Ezk 26:11
Describes ordinary work done with the feet on soft material, treading clay or mortar the way a potter does, which is then turned into a picture of God treading down nations.Nam 3:14Isa 41:25Isa 63:3
Both
Both can name the downward pressure of a foot on the ground, so both describe a victor stamping the defeated into the dirt.2Ki 9:33Dan 8:72Sa 22:43
Both end with something spread flat under repeated blows or steps rather than merely knocked over, one by the sole and one by the hammer.Isa 28:3Exo 39:3
Belongs above all to metalwork: hammering gold or silver thin enough to be cut into threads or laid over a surface as a covering.Exo 39:3Num 16:39Jer 10:9Isa 40:19
Carries the creation picture of God stretching earth and sky wide the way a smith spreads a sheet of beaten metal, a use the trampling word never has.Job 37:18Psa 136:6Isa 42:5Isa 44:24
Can be a bodily gesture rather than an act of force: stamping the foot as a signal of grief or of malicious delight, with nothing at all crushed underneath.Ezk 6:11Ezk 25:6
ramas in the other biblical languages
καταπατέωGreek“to trample”The main Greek verb for trampling underfoot, used of what is despised or crushed such as pearls, salt, or the holy city; it matches this word's sense of contemptuous or destructive treading.
The standard word for military conquest, where armies, horses, and beasts crush an enemy underfoot: hooves tramping through a captured city, a he-goat overpowering a ram, a lion treading down its prey.Ezk 26:11Dan 8:7Mic 5:8
Pictures God himself treading in judgment, crushing peoples like grapes in a winepress and stamping rulers down like wet clay.Isa 63:3Isa 41:25
Describes the trampling of what should be honored or spared: worshippers tramping the temple courts, and the feet of the poor treading down the proud city that oppressed them.Isa 1:12Isa 26:6
Both
Each is its language's ordinary word for crushing something underfoot as the image of utter defeat or worthlessness, whatever is trodden reduced to something beneath notice: a proud crown flattened in the Hebrew, worthless salt flung out and trodden in the Greek.Isa 28:3Mat 5:13
Both extend from a single foot to a crowd's own feet, where a dense press of people tramples the ones caught among them: the officer crushed to death in the gate, the throng treading on one another.2Ki 7:17Luk 12:1
Pictures trampling as an act of scorn toward what is precious or holy: tasteless salt thrown out and trodden by passersby, pearls crushed underfoot by pigs, the Son of God himself trampled on.Mat 5:13Mat 7:6Heb 10:29
Covers the trampling done by ordinary passersby, whose feet flatten what has been dropped in their path, as with seed fallen on the walkway.Luk 8:5
πατέωGreek“to trample”Means to tread or walk on, including treading serpents underfoot and treading the winepress; it covers both the ordinary and the crushing sides of treading.
Treads out grapes in a winepress, pressing the vintage under the feet, an image the New Testament turns into God pouring out his wrath.Rev 14:20Rev 19:15
What scholars say about ramas
BDB and HALOT treat רמס under a single root sense "to trample, tread down," listing the treading of clay or mortar (Isaiah 41:25;Nahum 3:14) as an application to a workman's action rather than a separate root. The verb is overwhelmingly used with a hostile or destructive nuance, treading down enemies, cities, and victims (2 Kings 7:17; 9:33; Daniel 8:7, 10; Micah 5:8), which grounds its frequent prophetic use for conquest and divine judgment (Isaiah 26:6; 63:3; Ezekiel 26:11). The one passive form (Isaiah 28:3) describes Ephraim's proud garland trodden underfoot. DCH catalogs the same distribution, and standard reference works note the word's close overlap with בּוּס.