Moses would have been wearing sandals rather than “shoes,” as most translators render the word. In the command take your sandals off the words “from your feet” have been omitted by Good News Translation as redundant for the English reader (see Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible, An American Translation*). According to ancient oriental custom one was not permitted to wear shoes in or at a holy place.

The rendering of holy ground is not easy in some languages. One can readily speak of a person being holy, but holy ground is rather unusual. However, it can be rendered in many languages as “ground dedicated to God,” and in this context it would be “ground specially dedicated to me,” since God is speaking. In other languages the rendering may be “ground which is specially mine,” since anything possessed by God takes on this quality of “holiness.” In still other languages, of course, there is a term for positive taboo and one can readily speak of a location as being “taboo,” in the sense that it is so filled with spirit power that it requires special behavior on the part of those who are in it or nearby.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .