Numbers 12:14

12:14 The Lord said to Moses, “If her father had only spit ¹  in her face, would she not have been disgraced for seven days? Shut her out from the camp seven days, and afterward she can be brought back in again.”

Deuteronomy 25:9

25:9 then his sister-in-law must approach him in view of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, and spit in his face. ²  She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” ³ 

Isaiah 50:6

50:6 I offered my back to those who attacked, ⁴ 

my jaws to those who tore out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from insults and spitting.

Matthew 26:67

26:67 Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. And some slapped him,

Matthew 27:30

27:30 They ⁵  spat on him and took the staff ⁶  and struck him repeatedly ⁷  on the head.

¹ tn The form is intensified by the infinitive absolute, but here the infinitive strengthens not simply the verbal idea but the conditional cause construction as well.

² sn The removal of the sandal was likely symbolic of the relinquishment by the man of any claim to his dead brother’s estate since the sandal was associated with the soil or land (cf. Ruth 4:7-8). Spitting in the face was a sign of utmost disgust or disdain, an emotion the rejected widow would feel toward her uncooperative brother-in-law (cf. Num 12:14; Lev 15:8). See W. Bailey, NIDOTTE 2:544.

³ tn Heb “build the house of his brother”; TEV “refuses to give his brother a descendant”; NLT “refuses to raise up a son for his brother.”

⁴ tn Or perhaps, “who beat [me].”

⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

⁶ tn Or “the reed.”

⁷ tn The verb here has been translated as an iterative imperfect.