Barefoot

Going barefoot in Scripture carried several distinct symbolic meanings. It was a mark of mourning and distress — Isaiah 20:2–4 records the prophet walking naked and barefoot for three years as a sign of the shame that would come upon Egypt and Cush when they were led away captive by Assyria. David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives barefoot and weeping during Absalom's rebellion (2 Samuel 15:30), a vivid image of royal humiliation. The removal of sandals was also a sign of reverence before the divine presence: God commanded Moses at the burning bush and Joshua before the captain of the Lord's army to remove their sandals, for the ground was holy.

The transfer or surrender of a sandal had legal significance in Israelite custom: in Ruth 4:7–8, the kinsman-redeemer drew off his sandal to formalize the cession of his right of redemption to Boaz. John the Baptist's declaration that he was unworthy to remove the sandals of the one coming after him (Matthew 3:11; John 1:27) employed the language of the lowest slave service to express the infinite disparity between his ministry and that of Christ.