Joshua 5:11

11 They ate of the produce of the land on the next day after the Pesach, unleavened cakes and parched grain, in the same day.

Joshua 5:11 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 5:11

And they did eat the old corn of the land
That of the last year, as some versions F7, which agree with ours; in which they seem to follow the Jewish writers, who, as particularly Kimchi, Gersom, and Ben Melech, interpret it of the old corn, for this reason, because they might not eat of the new until the wave sheaf was offered up, ( Leviticus 23:10 Leviticus 23:11 Leviticus 23:14 ) ; of which old corn they suppose the unleavened cakes were made, and was also parched corn, though that word the Septuagint version translates "new"; and indeed were it not for the above law, there does not seem to be any reason for rendering it old corn, only corn of the land, as the Septuagint does; and there is some difficulty how they should get at the old corn, which it may be supposed was laid up in the granaries, when Jericho was close shut up, and none went in or out; unless they met with it in some of the villages near at hand, or it was brought them by the traders in corn, of whom they bought it, or found it in some houses and barns without the city:

on the morrow after the passover;
which Kimchi and Ben Gersom say was on the fifteenth of Nisan, the passover being on the fourteenth; but if the morrow after the passover is the same with the morrow after the Sabbath, ( Leviticus 23:11 ) ; that was the sixteenth of Nisan; and so Jarchi here says, this is the day of waving the sheaf, which was always done on the sixteenth: it is difficult to say which day is meant; if it was the sixteenth, then it may refer to what they ate on that day, after the sheaf was offered F8; if it was the fifteenth, it seems necessary to understand it of the old corn; and such they must have to make their unleavened cakes of, both for the passover on the fourteenth, and the Chagigah, or feast of unleavened bread, which began the fifteenth, as it follows:

unleavened bread, and parched [corn] in the selfsame day;
unleavened bread, for the uses before mentioned, they were obliged to, and parched corn for their pleasure; but new corn, as the Septuagint render it, was expressly forbidden before the waving of the sheaf, ( Leviticus 23:14 ) ; and therefore old corn seems to be meant; this was just forty years to a day from their coming out of Egypt.


FOOTNOTES:

F7 (rwbem) "de frumento praeteriti anni", Montanus; sic, Munster, Tigurine version, Vatablus.
F8 So in Seder Olam Rabba, c. 11. p. 31.

Joshua 5:11 In-Context

9 The LORD said to Yehoshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Mitzrayim from off you. Therefore the name of that place was called Gilgal, to this day.
10 The children of Yisra'el encamped in Gilgal; and they kept the Pesach on the fourteenth day of the month at even in the plains of Yericho.
11 They ate of the produce of the land on the next day after the Pesach, unleavened cakes and parched grain, in the same day.
12 The manna ceased on the next day, after they had eaten of the produce of the land; neither had the children of Yisra'el manna any more; but they ate of the fruit of the land of Kana`an that year.
13 It happened, when Yehoshua was by Yericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Yehoshua went to him, and said to him, Are you for us, or for our adversaries?
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.