Original Word: מַתְבֵּן
Part of Speech: Noun Masculine
Transliteration: mathben
Pronunciation: math-BEN
Phonetic Spelling: (math-bane')
KJV: straw
NASB: straw
Word Origin: [denominative from H8401 (תֶּבֶן - straw)]

1. straw in the heap

straw

Denominative from teben; straw in the heap -- straw.

see HEBREW teben

Word Origin
from the same as teben
Definition
a straw heap
NASB Translation
straw (1).

מַתְבֵּן noun [masculine] straw-heap; — ׳מ Isaiah 25:10.

Meaning and Imagery

The noun מַתְבֵּן (matbēn) denotes a manure pile or dung heap—the place where animal waste and trampled straw accumulate. To an ancient agrarian audience, such a heap was malodorous, unhygienic, and fit only for eventual use as fertilizer. It graphically symbolized worthlessness, defilement, and a state fit to be trodden underfoot.

Agricultural and Social Context

In the Near East, manure was customarily mixed with chaff or straw, left to decay, and later spread over fields. The heap itself, however, was avoided except by animals that crushed the mixture under hoof. For Israelites, ritual purity laws (for example, Deuteronomy 23:12–14) heightened the association of dung with uncleanness. Thus any comparison to a manure pile implied extreme humiliation.

Biblical Occurrence

Isaiah 25:10 contains the only canonical use of מַתְבֵּן:

“For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trampled in their place as straw is trodden into the manure.” (Isaiah 25:10)

Here the prophet foretells the downfall of Moab, depicting its proud nation as straw driven into a dunghill—crushed, filthy, and irrecoverable.

Theological Significance

1. Judgment and Humbling of Pride
• Moab’s downfall illustrates divine opposition to haughty self-reliance (cf. Isaiah 16:6; Obadiah 3–4).
• The image assures the faithful that God will decisively reduce human arrogance to utter disgrace.

2. Purity and Separation
• By evoking a place rendered ritually unclean, the text underscores the moral cleavage between the holy mountain on which “the hand of the Lord will rest” and the polluted destiny of the unrepentant.
• The contrast reinforces God’s demand for holiness among His people (Leviticus 11:44).

3. Restoration Through Fertilizer Imagery
• While the heap itself is vile, its eventual use—fertilizing fields—hints at God’s ability to bring good out of judgment, cultivating future blessing for the meek (Isaiah 29:17).

Prophetic Message to Moab (Isaiah 25)

Isaiah 25 celebrates Yahweh’s eschatological banquet for all nations (Isaiah 25:6–9) yet warns that persistent enemies will be trodden down. Moab functions as an archetype of stubborn opposition. The manure-heap picture intensifies the certainty and completeness of that defeat.

Eschatological Outlook

The same passage looks forward to the day when “He will swallow up death forever” (Isaiah 25:8). The annihilation of proud Moab prefigures the final subjection of every hostile power under Christ’s feet (1 Corinthians 15:24–28). Thus מַתְבֵּן foreshadows the ultimate reversal in which God exalts the humble and casts down the proud.

Practical Ministry Insights

• Preaching: The vividness of Isaiah 25:10 warns congregations against conceit and self-sufficiency, urging repentance and reliance on God’s grace.
• Counseling: Believers crushed by failure can be reminded that God alone assigns true worth; worldly honor, like straw, can end in the dunghill.
• Discipleship: The passage trains disciples to esteem humility, knowing that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Related Biblical Themes

• Dunghill imagery elsewhere: 1 Samuel 2:8; Job 2:8; Lamentations 4:5.
• New Testament parallel: Paul’s valuation of worldly gain as “rubbish” (Philippians 3:8).
• Footstool motif: Psalm 110:1; Hebrews 10:13.

Summary

מַתְבֵּן paints an unforgettable picture of total humiliation. In Isaiah 25:10 it affirms God’s righteous judgment, underscores the chasm between holiness and impurity, and anticipates the climactic triumph of the Lord over every proud adversary.

מַתְבֵּ֖ן מתבן maṯ·bên matBen maṯbênInterlinear Greek • Interlinear Hebrew • Strong's Numbers • Englishman's Greek Concordance • Englishman's Hebrew Concordance • Parallel Texts