Deuteronomy 25:10

25:10 His family name will be referred to ¹  in Israel as “the family ²  of the one whose sandal was removed.” ³ 

Deuteronomy 29:5

29:5 I have led you through the desert for forty years. Your clothing has not worn out ⁴  nor have your sandals ⁵  deteriorated.

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. ⁶  She will then respond, “Thus may it be done to any man who does not maintain his brother’s family line!” ⁷ 

[25:10]  ¹ tn Heb “called,” i.e., “known as.”

[25:10]  ² tn Heb “house.”

[25:10]  ³ tn Cf. NIV, NCV “The Family of the Unsandaled.”

[29:5]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew text includes “on you.” This has not been included in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[29:5]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text includes “from on your feet.”

[25:9]  ⁷ 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.

[25:9]  ⁸ 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.”