Texts in Conversation
The Hebrew word for barefoot is rare, used of only a few figures including David and Isaiah. David climbs the Mount of Olives barefoot while fleeing his son in grief, while Isaiah goes barefoot deliberately to act out the coming captivity.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
2 Samuel 15:30
Hebrew Bible
29 So Zadok and Abiathar took the ark of God back to Jerusalem and remained there. 30 As David was going up the Mount of Olives, he was weeping as he went; his head was covered and his feet were bare. All the people who were with him also had their heads covered and were weeping as they went up. 31 Now David had been told, “Ahithophel has sided with the conspirators who are with Absalom.” So David prayed, “Make the advice of Ahithophel foolish, O Lord.”
Isaiah 20:2
Hebrew Bible
1 The Lord revealed the following message during the year in which King Sargon of Assyria sent his commanding general to Ashdod, and he fought against it and captured it. 2 At that time the Lord announced through Isaiah son of Amoz: “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and take your sandals off your feet.” He did as instructed and walked around in undergarments and barefoot. 3 Later the Lord explained, “In the same way that my servant Isaiah has walked around in undergarments and barefoot for the past three years, as an object lesson and omen pertaining to Egypt and Cush,
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Notes and References
"... The word יחף is rare. Besides Isaiah 20, it only appears in 2 Samuel 15:30 and Jeremiah 2:25. In 2 Samuel 15:30, David walks up the Mount of Olives weeping, his head covered and his feet bare (because of Absalom's revolt). Here, walking barefoot appears in the context of mourning and thus as a rite of self-humiliation. ... The fact that the prophet walks around naked and barefoot evokes different levels of meaning and associations: It points to humiliation, loss, lack of protection, and grief, and, as we shall see, to war and captivity. ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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