Bible Geek Word Nerd - Feet, Feet, Feet

 On Obsessions and Fetishes

15 April 2022

It is confession time. Is it okay that I offer some transparency here?

 

I have a foot fetish. 

 

 Now that the shock has gotten your attention, let me explain. I do not really have a fetish in the strictest sense (the origin of the word – in Latin – describes a fetish as something artificial which has magical or religious significance). Nor do I have a fetish in the contemporary sense it is used today. But I do have an obsession for the word as it occurs in both the Hebrew and Christian Bibles. Weird, I know. But bear with me for a bit and you will learn why.

 

The Hebrew word for “foot” is REGEL (רֶגֶל). Like all Hebrew words, it does more work than simply denotate that thing at the terminus of a leg on which a person steps. The word itself occurs 245 times in the Hebrew Bible. As a noun, it actually derives from a verb: RAGAL, which means “to go about on foot”. The verb, used 26 times in the Hebrew Bible, is not nearly as important as the noun (Hebrew has other verbs to carry the meaning of walking about).

 

The first time the noun is used is Genesis 8, where the dove can find no resting place for the sole of her REGEL. It occurs nine (9) times in the context of washing feet. The word is also translated as “footstool”. It occurs more often than the more familiar Hebrew “peace” SHALOM (שׁלם) and “loyal love” CHESED (חסד), and less than “heart/mind” LEVAV (לבב) and “life” CHAYAH (חיה).

 

Some verses wherein REGEL or one of its forms is found:

Gen 8:9 – the dove Noah sent out could not find a resting place for the soles of her “REGEL”

Gen 18:4 – Abraham washed the “REGEL” of the three visitors

Gen 29:1 – Jacob went on his “REGEL” (journey by foot) to the sons of the East

Exo 3:4 – Moshe took the sandals from his “REGEL”

 

But my absolute favorite verse with REGEL – and the one which gave me my obsession – is Isaiah 52:7. For Christians, the prophet Isaiah is arguably the most important of the Biblical prophets, both from the scope and scale of his work, and from the number of times his work is cited in the New Testament.

 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

 

Whenever I read the English word “foot” or “feet”, I am immediately reminded of this verse from Isaiah and of the role we are supposed to play as proclaimers of the Good News.