FOOT. The Hebrews out of modesty express sometimes by this word, such parts as decency does not allow to Isa. xxxvi. 12. Judg. iii. 24. 1 Sam. xxiv. 3. Jer. ii. 25. Isai. vii. 20. xlix. 33.name; for example, the water of the feet, signifies urine. To cover one’s feet, according to the Hebrew, is used for satisfying the necessities of nature. The hair of the feet. The Lord shall shave with a razor that is hired the head and the hair, and it shall also consume the beard. The hairs of the whole body. The following words of Jeremiah are explained in much the same sense. Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst. Do not continue to prostitute yourselves, as you have hitherto done, to strange people. He speaks to the infidel and idolatrous Jews. See likewise Ezekiel xvi. 25. Thou hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by. He gathered up his feet into the bed; this is said of an old man who died; the metaphor is borrowed from a man seized with cold, who crouds himself up in his bed. The Scripture says likewise to be gathered to his fathers, to his people, to the grave; to denote death, which reduces us all to the same condition, and the same necessity.
Gen. xxx. 30. Psalm viii. 6. Psal. xviii. 38. Isaiah lx. 14.Jacob said to Laban, the Lord hath blessed thee at my feet; that is to say, as St. Jerom has translated it, ad introitum meum, ever since I came to you, and undertook the conduct of your flocks.
To be under any one’s feet, to be a footstool to him, is a figurative way of speaking to signify the subjection of a subject to his sovereign, of a servant to his master. Thou hast put all things under his feet. Mine enemies are fallen under my feet. Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies my footstool, &c. Psal. cx.
Acts vii. 5. Deut. ii. 5.To adore the place where the feet of any one rest; Adorabunt vestigia pedum tuorum qui detrahebant tibi; they who despised thee, will come and adore the place where thou walkest. And elsewhere, Fall down before Psal. xcix. 5. Isa. xlix. 23.his footstool. And Isaiah in still a much stronger manner, They shall lick the dust of thy feet.
Vestigium pedis; not so much as to set his foot on, signifies a very small quantity of land. The Patriarchs did not possess a foot of land in Palestine, they possessed nothing at all there. I will not give thee a foot of land of the country of Edom, nothing at all: I will not give you of their land, no not so much as a foot’s breadth.
To set foot in a place, signifies to take possession of it, to make himself master of it. Deut. xi. 24.Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread, shall be yours. And, Over Edom will I cast out my shoe; I will make my self master of it. Psal. lx. 10. cviii. 10.
To bear one’s shoes, or untie the latchets of one’s shoes, is to perform the meanest services for him. See Matth. iii. 11. Mark i. 7. Luke ii. 16.
Gal. ii. 14.To walk uprightly in an affair, to behave with sincerity, without shifting, or disguise, is set in opposition to what the Scripture 1 Kings xviii. 21. Psal. xvii. 46.calls halting on both sides. How long halt ye between two opinions? And in the Psalms, Filii alieni claudicaverunt a semitis suis.
Deut. xxxiii. 24. Job xxix. 6. Exod. iii. 5.Nakedness of feet, was a sign of mourning: Forbear to cry, says God to Ezekiel, make no mourning for the dead, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, &c. It was likewise a mark of respect; Loose thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. The Rabbins inform us, that the Jews and Priests were bare-foot in the Temple. See Joshua v. 16.
To wash one’s feet with oil, or with butter, signifies plenty of all sorts of good things. To wash one’s feet in the blood of sinners, to take remarkable vengeance on them, to shed rivers of their blood.
Psal. xxv. 12. Psal. xxxi. 9. Prov. vi. 13. Psal. xl. 3. Ezek. xxv. 6.A wicked man speaketh with his feet, says Solomon, Annuit oculis, terit pede; in the Hebrew, loquitur pede. He uses much gesture with his hands and feet while he is talking. The ancient Sages blamed those who used too much gesticulation, and spoke with all their members. Ezekiel reproaches the Ammonites with clapping their hands and stamping with their feet in token of joy, Ezek. vi. 11.upon seeing the desolation of Jerusalem and the Temple. In another place he describes the same motions as signs of grief, because of the ruin of his people.
Isai. xxxii. 20.My foot standeth right; I have pursued the paths of righteousness: or rather supposing a Levite to be speaking, my foot shall stand in the place appointed for the Levites, in the Temple of the Lord, in the Court of the Priests, where my place is allotted me: In directo, in plano. The Psalmist in another passage says, Thou hast set my feet in a large room. Thou hast set me at liberty; before I was like a man in fetters, or in a slippery place, not knowing where to fix my feet; but thou hast set my feet in a wide, spacious and firm place; and, as he says elsewhere, Thou hast set my feet upon a rock.
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass, says Isaiah. Happy are the people who sow their corn upon a well-watered soil, who with their oxen and asses plow a fat and fruitful land; or, who feed there their oxen and their asses. Immittere pedem, that is to say, to send them there, to feed them, to plow there with them.
If thou turn away thy foot from my sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my Isai. lviii. 13.holy day, says the same Prophet: If thou forbear walking, and travelling upon the sabbath-day, and do not then act thine own will. Journeys, we know, were forbidden upon the sabbath-day. See Matth. xxiv.20. and Acts i. 12.
The Jewish women wore rings of great value upon their feet. See hereafter PERISCELIDES.
Job xix. 15. Job xiii. 27. xxxiii. 11.Job says, that he was feet to the lame, and eyes to the blind; that he led the one, and supported the other. He says in another place, that God had put his feet in the stocks, and looked narrowly to all his paths; like a bird or some other animal led along, with the foot fastned to a cord or packthread, and unable to go the least step, but as he who guides it, pleases.
The men were generally bare-foot in the house; the poor went thus almost always, even on their journeys: but others when they went into the country, commonly wore Shoes. See SHOES, Coverings for the legs and feet.