THUMBS AND BIG TOES IN THE BIBLE

These digits figure in several Old Testament texts which at first glance appear to be fairly diverse in nature. However, there are some similar themes tying them together.

The first thing to explain is that the Hebrew word bohen can mean either “thumb” if it is accompanied by yad (“hand”) or “big toe” if accompanied by regel (“foot”). And there are several passages in the Bible in which both usages occur in conjunction with one another. There is a more common word etsba, along with its Aramaic equivalent etsbean, which appears some 35 times in the OT, but it merely applies to “fingers” or “toes” in general, and so we will not be dealing with its usage below.

Exodus 29:20 // Leviticus 8:22-24

During the consecration rite for new priests, they are to be daubed with sacrificial blood from an animal on their right ear, thumb and big toe. The first question we might ask concerns the fact that only the right side is treated in such a matter. Wenham explains, “It is an example of a part standing for the whole: the right hand side was considered the more important and favored side (Gen. 48:17ff.; Matt. 25:34,41).”

But the more significant point is that only those three body parts are involved. Thus, Durham admits that these are “actions whose significance remains a puzzle (cf. Lev 14:14).” And Hamilton says, “Why the blood is applied to the priestly consecrand's extremities (ear, thumb, big toe) is not clear.” Also, Milgrom states, “The meaning of the rite is much debated. Of course, that doesn't stop scholars from speculating as to the reason. The three most suggested ones are listed below:

    1. These three body parts stand for the whole.

Knight comments on this ritual by saying, “The blood of the slain beast was now smeared on the horns of the altar and then transferred to the priests who represented Israel, from top to toe. The total forgiveness of Almighty God is thus revealed through pain and death.”

    2. There is an allegorical or symbolic explanation.

Driver: “The organs of hearing, handling and walking that are touched by the blood, imply that the priest is to have hallowed ears to listen to God's command, hallowed hands to perform his sacred offices, and hallowed feet to tread rightly the sacred places as also to walk generally in holy ways.” Others below have followed Driver's lead in their interpretations.

Cole: “Ear, thumb, and toe are symbolically cleansed and dedicated to YHWH. The priest will hear and obey: hand and foot alike will work for God.”

Ross: “The application to these parts covered what they heard, what they handled, where they went; it meant that in all their activities they were to be set apart by the blood. Being a priest involved total sanctification of life – a holy lifestyle.”

    3. It is for the purpose of purging evil.

“A third suggestion, following the clue given in Lev 14:14 and Ezek 43:20, in which the purpose of blood-daubing on extremities of a person/altar is for purging, suggests the same interpretation in Lev 8.” (Hamilton) More on this possibility is described below.

Leviticus 14

As just mentioned, we then come to multiple references to right ears, thumbs and big toes within this chapter of Leviticus, this time in reference to the cleansing rite for cured lepers. Milgrom associates the ordination rite with both this purification rite and with pagan rituals in the ancient near East to come up with the idea that the purpose was to purify a person and “ward off the incursions of menacing demonic forces. Always it is the vulnerable parts of bodies, extremities and structures (corners, entrances), that are smeared with magical substances.”

This latter part of his explanation seems a little unlikely in view of the fact that mouths were not included in the ritual.

Judges 1:6-7

The last place in the OT where bohen appears is at the start of Judges. The Canaanite king has just been captured by the Israelites, and they cut of his thumbs and big toes. And this incident draws various responses from readers:

The Dictionary of Biblical Imagery takes a decidedly negative view of this event: “Whatever heroism exists in the world of Judges is colored in any reader's imagination by the sordidness of the circumstances in which the heroism occurs. The grotesqueries of the book are introduced early.” On one level, this comment is right on-base. And it actually forms one half of a pair of bookends along with the even more sordid story which ends Judges, where a Levite cuts his concubine's dead body into 12 pieces and sends them to the various tribes of Israel.

And then we come to the comments of the realists, who accept this action as appropriate punishment for the king:

    Cundall: “The mutilation of Adoni-bezek not only humiliated him, but rendered him an impotent cripple who could not wield any weapon effectively. Such treatment, which to the modern reader seems so harsh, and was only infrequently employed by Israel, was accepted almost philosophically by the king, such was the strength of the lex talionis.” In other words, it was a case of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth since the king had been in the habit of treating his captives in the same manner.

    Similarly, Boling said that the mutilation was carried out “to prevent his ever taking up arms again, and in anticipation of his dispatch to Jerusalem for the purpose of instilling fear at Jerusalem.”

Personally, although there is much to be said for both those views, I prefer Webb's more theological explanation below:

    “Adoni-bezek is the first Canaanite we meet in Judges, and as a leader he is more than a random individual. He represents the kind of Canaanite regimes that God is overthrowing through the Israelites, who (we are to understand) are the agents of his just judgment. This narrative cameo opens up a window onto Canaanite culture as embodied in its leaders – a culture ripe for judgment, a culture whose day of reckoning has come (see Gen. 15:16).”

Cole appropriately ties together the different usages above with the words: “To lose thumbs and big toes was the symbol of impotence and uselessness (Jdg. 1:6); so to dedicate them to God was to dedicate all one's strength.”