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ונגשׁה5066 יבמתו2994 אליו413 לעיני5869 הזקנים2205 וחלצה2502 נעלו5275 מעל5921 רגלו7272 וירקה3417 בפניו6440 וענתה6030 ואמרה559 ככה3602 יעשׂה6213 לאישׁ376 אשׁר834 לא3808 יבנה1129 את853 בית1004 אחיו׃251

Nu 12:14 Job 30:10 Isa 50:6 Mt 26:67; 27:30 Mr 10:34

Verse 9. And loose his shoe] It is difficult to find the reason of these ceremonies of degradation. Perhaps the shoe was the emblem of power; and by stripping it off, deprivation of that power and authority was represented. Spitting in the face was a mark of the utmost ignominy; but the Jews, who are legitimate judges in this case, say that the spitting was not in his face, but before his face on the ground. And this is the way in which the Asiatics express their detestation of a person to the present day, as Niebuhr and other intelligent travelers assure us. It has been remarked that the prefix b beth is seldom applied to ynp peney; but when it is it signifies as well before as in the face. See Joshua xxi. 44; xxiii. 9; Esth. ix. 2; and Ezek. xlii. 12; which texts are supposed to be proofs in point. The act of spitting, whether in or before the face, marked the strong contempt the woman felt for the man who had slighted her. And it appears that the man was ever after disgraced in Israel; for so much is certainly implied in the saying, ver. 10: And his name shall be called in Israel, The house of him that hath his shoe loosed.

Ver. 9. Then shall his brother’s wife come unto him in the presence of the elders , etc.] The time and place being appointed the evening before by three Rabbins, and two witnesses, as Leo of Modena says f457 ; of which she was apprized, and ordered to come tasting: and loose his shoe from off his foot ; his right foot, which was thus done; “they bring him a leather shoe, which has a heel, but not sewed with linen (linen thread), and he puts it on the right foot, and binds the latchet on his foot, and stands, he and she, in the court; he fixes his foot on the ground, and she sits and stretches out her hand in the court, and looses the latchet of his shoe from off his foot, and pulls off his shoe, and casts it to the ground f458 :” this he suffered to be done to show that he gave up his right to her; and he was so used by way of reproach, to signify that he deserved not to be reckoned among freemen, but among servants and slaves, that went barefooted, having no shoes on: and in the mystical sense of it, as Ainsworth observes, it spiritually signified, that such as would not beget children unto Christ (or preach his Gospel for that purpose), it should be declared of them that their feet are not shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Christ, ( Ephesians 6:15); and spit in his face ; in a way of contempt, as a token of shame and disgrace; but the Jewish writers generally interpret this in a softer manner, as if it was not in his face, but in his presence, upon the floor, and seen by the judges f459 : and shall answer and say, so shall it be done unto the man that will not build up his brother’s house ; that is, in this contemptuous and shameful manner shall he be used.

ונגשׁה5066 יבמתו2994 אליו413 לעיני5869 הזקנים2205 וחלצה2502 נעלו5275 מעל5921 רגלו7272 וירקה3417 בפניו6440 וענתה6030 ואמרה559 ככה3602 יעשׂה6213 לאישׁ376 אשׁר834 לא3808 יבנה1129 את853 בית1004 אחיו׃251