“Then shal his brothers wife come vnto him in the presence of the Elders, and loose his shooe from off his foote, and spit in his face, and shall answere, and say, So shall it bee done vnto that man that will not build vp his brothers house.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
25:9 Loose his shoe - As a sign of his resignation of all his right to the woman, and to her husband's inheritance: for as the shoe was a sign of one's power and right, #Psa 60:8 108:9|, so the parting with the shoe was a token of the alienation of such right; and as a note of infamy, to signify that by this disingenuous action he was unworthy to be amongst free - men, and fit to be reduced to the condition of the meanest servants, who used to go barefoot, #Isa 20:2|,4.