Deuteronomy 25:9

come unto The same vb. in Deuteronomy 20:2; Deuteronomy 21:5, of the formal approach Of priests.

and strip his sandal from off his foot -As one occupied land by treading on it, the shoe became the symbol of taking possession (Psalms 60:8; Psalms 108:9); when a man renounced property to another, he drew off and gave him his shoe. So among the ancient Germans the taking off of the shoe was a symbol for giving up property and heritable rights, and with the delivery of the shoe or the throwing of it away goods were conveyed to another. Similarly among Hindoos and Arabs, Burckhardt, Bed. 91" (abridged from Knobel). Cp. the Bedawee form of divorce: -She was my slipper, I cast her off" (W. R. Smith, Kinship, etc., 269). That the right was a duty, which should not be renounced, is marked by the woman's drawing off the sandal, and spitting in the face of the recusant (Numbers 12:14; Job 30:10; Isaiah 50:6). Sandal, Heb. na-al, Ar. na-l.

answer testify or solemnly assert as in Deuteronomy 5:20, etc.

the man that doth not build up, etc.] Such was his sin. But the excuse of the kinsman who refused to take Ruth and her possession was that he was unwilling to mar his own heritage (Ruth 4:6). Build up, Ruth 4:11.