Sandal
The sandal was the everyday footwear of the biblical world: a sole of leather, sometimes of wood or woven plant fiber, fastened to the foot with straps. Simple as it was, it appears at decisive moments in Scripture, from the burning bush to the Jordan, from the gate of Bethlehem to the preaching of John the Baptist and the armor of God.
Because sandals were worn on dusty roads and removed on entering a house, they became natural symbols. Taking them off could express reverence before God or grief; handing one over could seal a legal transaction; untying another person’s sandal was the lowest service of a slave; putting them on meant readiness to travel.
Following these uses through the Bible helps the reader understand several famous texts and shows how God teaches great truths through ordinary things.
1. Etymology and meaning
The common Hebrew word is naʿal (נַעַל), used for a sandal or shoe. The related verb means “to shoe” someone: the captives of Judah were clothed and given sandals (2 Chronicles 28:15), and the Lord says to Jerusalem, “I shod you with fine leather” (Ezekiel 16:10). The sandal strap is śĕrôk (שְׂרוֹךְ), mentioned when Abram refuses to take “a thread or a sandal strap” from the king of Sodom (Genesis 14:23).
In the New Testament the usual word is hypodēma (ὑπόδημα), literally “something bound under” the foot (Matthew 3:11; Luke 10:4; 15:22). The word sandalion (σανδάλιον) appears in Mark 6:9 and Acts 12:8. The strap is himas (ἱμάς) (Mark 1:7). In Ephesians 6:15 Paul uses the related verb hypodeō, “to bind on” footwear.
2. Historical context and biblical use
Everyday footwear
Most people in ancient Israel wore sandals, not closed shoes. The poor might go barefoot, and the wealthy could have finer leather. Travelers’ sandals wore out, as the Gibeonites pretended when they came with “worn-out, patched sandals” (Joshua 9:5, 13). Remarkably, during forty years in the wilderness the sandals of Israel did not wear out (Deuteronomy 29:5), a sign of God’s daily care.
Removing and putting on sandals
Sandals were taken off indoors, and guests had their dusty feet washed (Genesis 18:4; John 13:5). To go barefoot in public was a sign of mourning or humiliation: David walked barefoot as he fled from Absalom (2 Samuel 15:30), and Isaiah walked barefoot as a sign of coming captivity (Isaiah 20:2-4). By contrast, Ezekiel was told not to mourn his wife but to put his sandals on (Ezekiel 24:17). At the first Passover Israel ate with sandals on their feet, ready to leave Egypt (Exodus 12:11).
A symbol of possession and of worth
The sandal was also linked to rights over land, perhaps because one walks on what one possesses. God says, “Upon Edom I cast my shoe” (Psalm 60:8; 108:9), a gesture most interpreters understand as claiming it as His. At the other extreme, a pair of sandals could symbolize something almost worthless: Amos condemns those who “sell the needy for a pair of sandals” (Amos 2:6; 8:6).
3. Key passages
Exodus 3:5. At the burning bush God says to Moses: “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” The ground was holy not because of the place itself, but because of the presence of the LORD. The same command is given to Joshua by the commander of the LORD’s army near Jericho (Joshua 5:15), marking the continuity between the exodus and the conquest. Stephen recalls the scene in his defense (Acts 7:33).
Deuteronomy 25:9-10. If a man refused to raise up a name for his dead brother through levirate marriage, the widow was to pull his sandal off his foot before the elders and spit in his face, and his house would be called “the house of him who had his sandal pulled off.” The gesture publicly marked his refusal of a family duty.
Ruth 4:7-8. In Bethlehem, “to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other.” The nearer kinsman gave up his right of redemption, and Boaz acquired the field of Elimelech and took Ruth as his wife. The narrator explains the custom because it was already old in his day. The scene is related to Deuteronomy 25, though not identical, and scholars discuss exactly how the two customs connect.
Mark 1:7; John 1:27. John the Baptist says of Jesus: “the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” Matthew has “whose sandals I am not worthy to carry” (Matthew 3:11; compare Luke 3:16; Acts 13:25). Handling a master’s sandals was a slave’s task; a later rabbinic saying even exempted disciples from it (Babylonian Talmud, Ketubot 96a). John, the greatest of the prophets, confessed that he was not worthy even of that lowest service.
Luke 10:4. Sending out the seventy-two, Jesus said: “Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals.” The mission was urgent and dependent on God’s provision. The accounts of the Twelve differ slightly (Matthew 10:10 forbids sandals; Mark 6:9 allows them); many interpreters understand that Jesus forbade taking extra provisions, not simply wearing sandals, but the exact harmonization is debated.
Luke 15:22. When the prodigal son returns, the father orders: “Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.” Servants often went barefoot; sandals on the son’s feet declared that he was received not as a hired servant but as a son.
Ephesians 6:15. In the armor of God, the believer stands firm “as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” The image echoes Isaiah 52:7, quoted in Romans 10:15: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
4. Theological significance
The sandal teaches first the holiness of God. Before Him human beings must come with reverence, recognizing that the ground of His presence is not common. Yet this holy God came near in Jesus Christ, and the One whose sandals John was unworthy to untie knelt to wash the feet of His disciples (John 13:5). The humility of the servant is surpassed by the humility of the Lord.
The sandal also speaks of redemption and belonging. In Ruth, the handing over of a sandal clears the way for Boaz, the kinsman-redeemer, to restore a family and receive a foreign widow into Israel, from whom David and ultimately Christ descend (Ruth 4:17; Matthew 1:5). In the parable of the prodigal son, sandals mark restored sonship. Grace does not only forgive; it clothes and restores dignity.
Finally, the sandal expresses readiness. Israel ate the Passover with sandals on, ready to go; the church stands in the gospel of peace with feet prepared to move. Faith is not static: those who have been redeemed are sent.
5. Legacy and canonical references
The sandal runs through the canon: Genesis (14:23), the exodus (Exodus 3:5; 12:11), the law (Deuteronomy 25:9-10; 29:5), the conquest (Joshua 5:15; 9:5), Ruth, the Psalms, the Prophets (Isaiah 5:27; 20:2; Amos 2:6), the Gospels and the Epistles. Even the Song of Songs praises the bride’s “feet in sandals” (Song of Solomon 7:1).
In later Judaism the ceremony of Deuteronomy 25 developed into a formal rite known as ḥalitzah (removing the shoe). In Christian tradition, the saying of John the Baptist became a classic model of humility in ministry: the servant points away from himself to Christ.
6. Application for today
Do we still approach God with reverence? Most of us will never remove our sandals in worship, but the attitude of Exodus 3:5 remains: prayer, the reading of Scripture and the gathering of the church are holy ground because God is present. Familiarity must not become carelessness.
John’s confession also searches our pride. Anyone who serves in the church can be tempted to seek recognition. The right posture is his: Christ is so great that we are not worthy even of the lowest service, and yet He graciously uses us. And for those who feel far from God, the sandals placed on the prodigal’s feet are good news. The Father does not receive repentant children as servants but restores them as sons and daughters. Put on, then, the readiness of the gospel of peace, and walk where He sends you.