Mire
Summary
Mud or clay, used figuratively in Scripture to describe conditions of helplessness, degradation, and moral corruption from which only God can deliver.
☩Figurative Usage
The Psalmist cries: 'I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me' (Psalm 69:2). Again: 'He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings' (Psalm 40:2). These images depict desperate situations from which only divine intervention provides rescue.
☩Moral Degradation
Peter uses mire to describe those who return to sin after knowing Christ: 'The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire' (2 Peter 2:22). This vivid imagery emphasizes the degradation of apostasy—returning to filth after being cleansed.
☩Symbol of Worthlessness
In describing his enemies, David declares: 'Then did I beat them small as the dust before the wind: I did cast them out as the dirt in the streets' (Psalm 18:42). The mire of streets, trampled by all, represents utter contempt and worthlessness. Job similarly speaks of those who 'dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust' (Job 4:19), emphasizing human frailty.