4087. madmenah

Lexical Summary

madmenah: manure pile

Original Word: מַדְמֵנָה
Part of Speech: Noun Feminine
Transliteration: madmenah
Pronunciation: mad-may-nah
Phonetic Spelling: (mad-may-naw')
KJV: dunghill
NASB: manure pile
Word Origin: [feminine from the same as H1828 (דּוֹמֶן - dung)]

1. a dunghill

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance

dunghill

Feminine from the same as domen; a dunghill -- dunghill.

see HEBREW domen

NAS Exhaustive Concordance

Word Origin
from the same as domen
Definition
place of dung, dung pit
NASB Translation
manure pile (1).

Brown-Driver-Briggs

I. מַדְמֵנָה noun feminine dung-place, dung-pit, במי ׳מ Isaiah 25:10 (Qr ׳בְּמוֺ מ).

Topical Lexicon

Meaning and Image

Madmenah denotes a manure heap or dung pile. In Isaiah 25:10 the term turns a familiar element of daily village life into a prophetic picture of humiliation: the once-proud Moab is reduced to the place where refuse is gathered and churned for fertilizer.

Biblical Text (Isaiah 25:10)

“For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trampled in their own place as straw is trampled in the dung pile.”

Ancient Agricultural Practice

In the Ancient Near East farmers mixed straw with manure and repeatedly stamped it to accelerate decomposition. The process was dirty, smelly, and lowly, yet essential for producing fertile soil. By likening Moab to straw in a dung heap, Isaiah evokes several ideas:
• Total subjugation—Moab lies underfoot, unable to resist.
• Extended humiliation—the treading continues until nothing recognizable remains.
• Ironic fruitfulness—while a dung heap ultimately enriches soil, Moab’s downfall enriches Zion, highlighting divine reversal.

Prophetic Context

Isaiah 25 crowns a sequence of judgment-and-salvation oracles (Isaiah 24–27). The “mountain” where the LORD’s hand rests is Zion, the locus of divine rule (Isaiah 24:23). Moab, symbolic of prideful opposition (Isaiah 16; Jeremiah 48), is singled out as an exemplar of every nation that exalts itself against God. The contrast is stark: security and feasting on Mount Zion; disgrace and trampling in Madmenah.

Intertextual Echoes

• Psalm 83:10—hostile kings become “dung for the ground.”
• Jeremiah 9:22; 2 Kings 9:37—bodies left “as dung on the ground.”
• Malachi 2:3—faithless priests are smeared with “the refuse” of sacrifices.

All employ refuse imagery to stress the certainty and completeness of divine judgment.

Theological Themes

1. Sovereign reversal: the LORD exalts the humble (Isaiah 25:4) and brings low the arrogant (Isaiah 25:11–12).
2. Purity of God’s kingdom: Zion is free from corruption, while opposition is consigned to the refuse heap (Revelation 21:27).
3. Hope through judgment: even a dung heap becomes fertilizer; so divine justice ultimately serves the blossoming of the new creation (Isaiah 35:1).

Lessons for Faith and Ministry

• Humility before God is non-negotiable; pride invites trampling (James 4:6).
• Judgment passages are evangelistic warnings, urging sinners to flee to the mountain where the LORD’s hand rests (Hebrews 12:22–24).
• Believers laboring in thankless or “dirty” ministries can recall that God uses what seems base to advance His redemptive purposes (1 Corinthians 1:27–29).
• Preachers may employ Isaiah’s vivid realism to confront cultural complacency: worldly prestige is one step from Madmenah without repentance.

Thus, Madmenah stands as a single but potent reminder that the LORD overthrows every proud obstacle to His kingdom, transforming even the most offensive places into instruments of His ultimate glory.

Forms and Transliterations

מַדְמֵנָֽה׃ מדמנה׃ maḏ·mê·nāh madmeNah maḏmênāh

Englishman's Concordance

Isaiah 25:10
HEB: (בְּמֹ֥ו ק) מַדְמֵנָֽה׃
NAS: in the water of a manure pile.
INT: straw waste of a manure

1 Occurrence

Strong's Hebrew 4087
1 Occurrence

maḏ·mê·nāh — 1 Occ.