Book of Nehemiah
The first recorded use of the expression was in 1816 by Sir Walter Scott in the Scots language, in "The Antiquary". This expression is a mistranslation of the Latin phrase "dederunt umerum recedentem" from the Book of Nehemiah 9.29 from the Vulgate Bible, which actually means "stubbornly they turned their backs on you", which comes from the Septuagint Bible's Greek equivalent "ἔδωκαν νῶτον ἀπειθοῦντα". Latin "umerus" (often misspelled "humerus") means both "shoulder" and "back":