a sandal: the open, thong-tied footwear worn on the foot in the ancient world.
TranslatabilityDirectCertaintySettled
A sandal in the Bible is a simple thing: a sole of leather or fiber held to the foot by a strap, the strap being the "latchet" or thong that older translations mention. People tied them on for a journey and pulled them off to rest, to mourn, or to stand on holy ground. A heavier cousin, the tramping boot of a soldier (סְאוֹן), turns up only once.
Because a sandal touched the ground a person walked and claimed, it took on meanings far larger than the object itself:
Drawing off a sandal sealed the surrender of a legal right, as when a man refused to marry his dead brother's widow, or when Boaz took over the claim to Ruth.
A pair of sandals became a byword for something worthless, the trifling price for which the poor were sold in Amos.
Flinging a sandal over a stretch of land staked a claim to it, the gesture God makes over Edom in the Psalms.
None of this changes what the word means. It is always the sandal on the foot; what changes is the custom the sandal is caught up in. The New Testament's word for the same footwear is ὑπόδημα, the sandal whose strap John the Baptist felt unworthy to loosen.
Nuances
1aa sandal worn on the foot: ordinary footwear, tied on for travel or taken off to rest, mourn, or stand on holy ground.
the Hebrew names specifically the open, thong-tied sandal of the ancient world, held on by a strap.Gen 14:23Isa 5:27
Both
both name what a person straps or slips onto the foot to walk.Deu 29:5Jos 9:5
Only shoe
English "shoe" calls to mind the closed, laced footwear we wear today, which the ancient item was not.
How na'al differs from similar Hebrew words
סְאוֹןthe heavy boot or sandal of a tramping soldier, an imitative word that appears only once (Isaiah 9:5); where this word is the everyday sandal, that one evokes the noisy march of an army.
The ordinary sandal of daily life, defined by being strapped on and taken off: slipped off as a sign of standing on holy ground, and drawn off and handed over to seal a legal transfer of property.Exo 3:5Rut 4:7
A stock image of the lowest possible value and of dominion over land: the needy sold "for a pair of sandals," and a conquered territory claimed by flinging a sandal across it.Amo 2:6Psa 60:8
Both
Both name footwear worn strapped onto the foot.Exo 12:11Isa 9:5
The heavy boot of the marching soldier, named for the stamping tread of an army in the roar of battle and destined to be burned as fuel for the fire.Isa 9:5
na'al in the other biblical languages
ὑπόδημαGreek“sandal”the ordinary New Testament word for a sandal, literally "what is bound under" the foot; it renders this Hebrew word in the Greek Old Testament and carries the same image of the strap John the Baptist felt unworthy to loosen.
A legal token in the levirate and redemption ceremonies: drawing off the sandal renounces or seals a transaction, and the shamed man's line is branded "the house of him whose sandal was pulled off."Deu 25:9Rut 4:7Rut 4:8
A gesture of ownership or contempt flung over conquered territory: "over Edom I toss my sandal."Psa 60:8Psa 108:9
The trivial price for which the poor are sold, a byword for injustice: the needy handed over "for a pair of sandals."Amo 2:6Amo 8:6
Both
Both name the ordinary sandal worn on the foot, taken off as a sign that the ground one stands on is holy.Exo 3:5Act 7:33
The object of a servant's lowest task: to untie or carry another's sandals, the image John the Baptist uses to measure how far below the coming one he stands.Mat 3:11Mrk 1:7Jhn 1:27Act 13:25
Part of the travel kit a sent-out worker is told to carry or leave behind, in Jesus' instructions to those he commissions.Mat 10:10Luk 10:4Luk 22:35
σανδάλιονGreek“sandal”the more specific Greek "sandal," used when the disciples are told to travel wearing them (Mark 6:9;Acts 12:8).
The sandal becomes a legal token: drawing it off and handing it over publicly sealed a transaction, confirming the transfer or redemption of a right to property.Rut 4:7Rut 4:8
Figures in a public shaming rite: a widow pulls the sandal off the brother who refuses to raise his dead brother's line, and his household is branded "the house of him whose sandal was pulled off."Deu 25:9Deu 25:10
Thrown down as a gesture of conquest: God flings his sandal onto Edom to claim it as seized territory, the way a man planted his foot on land he owned.Psa 60:8Psa 108:9
Stands for a paltry sum, the trifling worth for which the greedy sell off the poor, and the pettiest thing Abram will not pocket from a foreign king.Amo 2:6Amo 8:6Gen 14:23
Both
Both name the ordinary sandal strapped onto the foot for walking, the footwear a traveller binds on before setting out on a journey.Mrk 6:9Act 12:8Exo 12:11Deu 29:5
The standard lexicons (HALOT, BDB, DCH) gloss נַעַל uniformly as "sandal, shoe," the ordinary footwear of a leather or fiber sole bound to the foot by a thong. There is no dispute about the referent. Scholarly attention falls instead on the object's ceremonial and figurative roles. The drawing off of the sandal in Deuteronomy 25:9-10 (the levirate refusal) and Ruth 4:7-8 (redemption and transfer) is widely discussed as a legal gesture symbolizing the release or conveyance of a right, and the narrator of Ruth flags it as an obsolete custom; commentators debate how closely the two rites correspond. The Amos phrase "for a pair of sandals" (2:6; 8:6) is usually taken as hyperbole for a trivial price, though Speiser connected it to Nuzi transfer practice and read it as the token of a formal sale. The gesture of casting a sandal over Edom (Psalm 60:8; 108:9) is read either as an act of taking possession or as an expression of contempt. These are debates about custom and gesture, not about the meaning of the word.
Sources
HALOT (Koehler-Baumgartner), s.v. נַעַלlexicon
BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs), s.v. נַעַלlexicon
DCH (Clines, ed.), s.v. נַעַלlexicon
E. A. Speiser, "Of Shoes and Shekels," BASOR 77 (1940): 15-20article
Robert L. Hubbard, The Book of Ruth (NICOT, 1988)commentary