Isaiah 14:19

14:19 But you have been thrown out of your grave

like a shoot that is thrown away. ¹ 

You lie among ²  the slain,

among those who have been slashed by the sword,

among those headed for ³  the stones of the pit, ⁴ 

as if you were a mangled corpse. ⁵ 

Isaiah 51:23

51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ⁶ 

who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’

You made your back like the ground,

and like the street for those who walked over you.”

Micah 7:10

7:10 When my enemies see this, they will be covered with shame.

They say ⁷  to me, “Where is the Lord your God?”

I will gloat over them. ⁸ 

Then they will be trampled down ⁹ 

like mud in the streets.

Matthew 5:13

Salt and Light

5:13 “You are the salt ¹⁰  of the earth. But if salt loses its flavor, ¹¹  how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people.

Hebrews 10:29

10:29 How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ¹²  the Son of God, and profanes ¹³  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ¹⁴  and insults the Spirit of grace?

Revelation 14:20

14:20 Then ¹⁵  the winepress was stomped ¹⁶  outside the city, and blood poured out of the winepress up to the height of horses’ bridles ¹⁷  for a distance of almost two hundred miles. ¹⁸ 

¹ tn Heb “like a shoot that is abhorred.” The simile seems a bit odd; apparently it refers to a small shoot that is trimmed from a plant and tossed away. Some prefer to emend נֵצֶר (netser, “shoot”); some propose נֵפֶל (nefel, “miscarriage”). In this case one might paraphrase: “like a horrible-looking fetus that is delivered when a woman miscarries.”

² tn Heb “are clothed with.”

³ tn Heb “those going down to.”

⁴ tn בּוֹר (bor) literally means “cistern”; cisterns were constructed from stones. On the metaphorical use of “cistern” for the underworld, see the note at v. 15.

⁵ tn Heb “like a trampled corpse.” Some take this line with what follows.

⁶ tn That is, to make them drink it.

⁷ tn Heb “who say.” A new sentence was begun here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁸ tn Heb “My eyes will look on them.”

⁹ tn Heb “a trampled-down place.”

¹⁰ sn Salt was used as seasoning or fertilizer (BDAG 41 s.v. ἅλας a), or as a preservative. If salt ceased to be useful, it was thrown away. With this illustration Jesus warned about a disciple who ceased to follow him.

¹¹ sn The difficulty of this saying is understanding how salt could lose its flavor since its chemical properties cannot change. It is thus often assumed that Jesus was referring to chemically impure salt, perhaps a natural salt which, when exposed to the elements, had all the genuine salt leached out, leaving only the sediment or impurities behind. Others have suggested that the background of the saying is the use of salt blocks by Arab bakers to line the floor of their ovens; under the intense heat these blocks would eventually crystallize and undergo a change in chemical composition, finally being thrown out as unserviceable. A saying in the Talmud (b. Bekhorot 8b) attributed to R. Joshua ben Chananja (ca. a.d. 90), when asked the question “When salt loses its flavor, how can it be made salty again?” is said to have replied, “By salting it with the afterbirth of a mule.” He was then asked, “Then does the mule (being sterile) bear young?” to which he replied: “Can salt lose its flavor?” The point appears to be that both are impossible. The saying, while admittedly late, suggests that culturally the loss of flavor by salt was regarded as an impossibility. Genuine salt can never lose its flavor. In this case the saying by Jesus here may be similar to Matt 19:24, where it is likewise impossible for the camel to go through the eye of a sewing needle.

¹² tn Grk “tramples under foot.”

¹³ tn Grk “regarded as common.”

¹⁴ tn Grk “by which he was made holy.”

¹⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

¹⁶ sn The winepress was stomped. See Isa 63:3, where Messiah does this alone (usually several individuals would join in the process).

¹⁷ tn L&N 6.7 states, “In Re 14:20 the reference to a bit and bridle is merely an indication of measurement, that is to say, the height of the bit and bridle from the ground, and one may reinterpret this measurement as ‘about a meter and a half’ or ‘about five feet.’”

¹⁸ tn Grk “1,600 stades.” A stade was a measure of length about 607 ft (185 m). Thus the distance here would be 184 mi or 296 km.