‘lift up the foot,’ to take or initiate a course of action (Gen. 41:44); “make your foot rare at the house of your fellow man,” not taking undue advantage of his hospitality (Prov. 25:17); ‘walking barefoot,’ in humiliation or mourning (captives often being led barefoot) (Isa. 20:2); ‘laying [something] at the feet of’ (a person), as a gift or offering (Acts 5:1, 2); ‘falling at one’s feet,’ in obeisance (Mark 5:22); ‘putting under the feet,’ in subjection (1 Cor. 15:27; Heb. 2:8); ‘bruising or treading under feet,’ in victory (Mal. 4:3; Rom. 16:20); ‘putting feet upon the neck of an enemy,’ as a symbol of subduing or conquering him (Josh. 10:24); ‘washing the foot in blood,’ in execution of enemies (Ps. 68:22, 23); ‘covering the feet,’ easing nature (literally, ‘keeping the feet hidden’—Judg. 3:24; 1 Sam. 24:3). The phrase “dipping his foot in oil” was used prophetically in foretelling the fat or abundant portion that the tribe of Asher would have among their brothers of Israel. (Deut. 33:24) Ruth uncovered the feet of Boaz and lay down at his feet as a notification for him to take legal action in the matter of brother-in-law marriage.—Ruth 3:4, 7, 8.

“Comely” feet

Jehovah has special regard for the feet of those proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom, calling them “comely.” (Isa. 52:7; Rom. 10:15) The Christian must have his feet shod with the “equipment of the good news of peace” so that he can properly carry the good news. (Eph. 6:15) Jesus instructed his disciples that when those in a house or a city refused to take them in or listen to their words, they should shake the dust off their feet, thereby showing that they left the unreceptive house or city to the consequences that were due to come upon them from a higher source, from heaven.—Matt. 10:14.

‘Cut off your foot’

Jesus used the term “foot” figuratively in saying: “If, then, your hand or your foot is making you stumble, cut it off and throw it away from you,” meaning that if something as precious as the hand or foot is causing us to sin, or if something is leading us to sin with the hand or foot, we should get rid of that thing rather than to forfeit integrity and life itself.—Matt. 18:8.

In the Christian “body”

The apostle Paul, likening the Christian congregation to a human body, highlights the interdependence of the members thereof when he says: “If the foot should say: ‘Because I am not a hand, I am no part of the body,’ it is not for this reason no part of the body.”—1 Cor. 12:15.

GOD’S FOOTSTOOL

Jehovah pictures himself in his sovereign position as sitting on a heavenly throne with the earth as his footstool. (Isa. 66:1) He says to Zion that he will beautify the place of his sanctuary, and adds: “I shall glorify the very place of my feet.”—Isa. 60:13, 14; see ATTITUDES AND GESTURES; HEEL; TOE.

FOOTSTOOL

A low stool, designed to serve as a rest or support for the feet when the individual is seated. The Hebrew word keʹvesh appears only once in the Scriptures and is used with reference to the gold footstool of King Solomon’s throne. (2 Chron. 9:18) The Hebrew expression hadhomʹ ragh·laʹyim (literally, “stool of the feet”) occurs six times and is used figuratively to refer to the temple (1 Chron. 28:2; Ps. 99:5; 132:7; Lam. 2:1), the earth (Isa. 66:1) and the enemies as being crushed by Messiah’s rule. (Ps. 110:1) James reproves those practicing class distinctions in the congregation, using the illustration of a poor man being told: “Take that seat there under my footstool.” (Jas. 2:3) All other occurrences of the word footstool in the Christian Greek Scriptures are quotations from or references to the Hebrew Scriptures.—Matt. 5:35; Acts 7:49; “stool for your [or, his] feet” in Luke 20:43; Acts 2:35; Heb. 1:13; 10:13.

FORCED LABOR

The use of forced labor was evidently quite common in Bible times, with conquered peoples frequently being constituted slaves. (Deut. 20:11; Josh. 16:10; 17:13; Esther 10:1; Isa. 31:8; Lam. 1:1) As slavish forced laborers, the Israelites, under the immediate oversight of Egyptian chiefs who tyrannized over them, engaged in building the storage places of Pithom and Raamses. (Ex. 1:11-14) Then, upon entering the Promised Land, the Israelites, instead of following through on Jehovah’s command to drive out all the Canaanite inhabitants of the land who should have been devoted to destruction, forced them into task work, slavish labor. This had the bad effect of luring Israel into the worship of false gods. (Josh. 16:10; Judg. 1:28; 2:3, 11, 12) King Solomon continued levying the descendants of these Canaanites, that is, of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, for slavish forced labor.—1 Ki. 9:20, 21.

At times, Israelite workers were drafted to meet an emergency or to complete a special project that could not be delayed indefinitely. Issachar, according to the words of his dying father Jacob, was to be subjected as a tribe to this type of forced labor. (Gen. 49:15) Solomon conscripted thirty thousand men of Israel for his temple-building operations. Nevertheless, these were not constituted slaves, for they served in shifts of ten thousand a month in Lebanon and thus were able to spend two months at home and a month at the work. (1 Ki. 5:13, 14) But it appears that considerable resentment built up against the conscripting of Israelites for forced labor. When Rehoboam did not agree to lighten the heavy yoke Israel had had to bear under the rulership of Solomon and subsequently sent Adoram (Hadoram, Adoniram) to conscript workers, the Israelites stoned Adoram, who must have been quite advanced in years then, having begun to serve in David’s time as overseer of those conscripted for work.—2 Sam. 20:24; 1 Ki. 4:6; 5:14; 12:14, 18; 2 Chron. 10:18.

Laziness could easily get an Israelite into debt and in time force him to sell his inheritance and also himself into slavery. Hence the proverb: “The slack hand will come to be for forced labor.”—Prov. 12:24.

FOREHEAD

As a very prominent and readily seen feature of an individual, the forehead was, in ancient times, a place for marking slaves so that all could see to what master they belonged. Also, the devotees of certain pagan gods were thus marked. Even today some follow the practice of putting religious marks on the forehead, so that all others can be aware of their devotion to their religious beliefs.

MARK IN THE FOREHEAD

Bearing a mark in the “forehead” is similarly used in a figurative way in the Bible to signify that one is a slave to the true God or to another. At Revelation 7:2-4, reference is made to angelic sealing of 144,000 persons in their foreheads. The Bible indicates that such seal is a symbol of God’s holy spirit and that the sealing began at Pentecost, 33 C.E., with the last remaining ones being sealed in the “time of the end.” (Eph. 1:13, 14; 4:30) These, by their following Christ Jesus and their activity in preaching and supporting his kingdom, display the seal of the outpoured spirit and thus are clearly identifiable as slaves of Jehovah God. (Rev. 20:4) In another part of the vision of Revelation, the 144,000 are represented as having the name of the Lamb Jesus Christ and the name of his Father written on their foreheads. As the Bride of the Lamb, they would properly take his name. (Rev. 14:1; 22:3, 4) Since the Hebrew language is twice mentioned in the book of Revelation (9:11; 16:16) and since the apostle John was a Hebrew, it may have been the sacred Tetragrammaton that was written on the foreheads of the 144,000, identifying them as Jehovah’s servants and witnesses.