Joshua 9:5

5 They put on worn-out, patched sandals and ragged clothes. And the bread they took with them was dry and moldy.

Joshua 9:5 Meaning and Commentary

Joshua 9:5

And old shoes and clouted upon their feet
Which being worn out, were patched with various pieces of leather:

and old garments upon them;
full of holes and rents, ragged and patched:

and the bread of their provision was dry [and] mouldy;
having been kept a long time, and unfit for use; or like cakes over baked and burnt, as the Targum and Jarchi: the word for "mouldy" signifies pricked, pointed, spotted, as mouldy bread has in it spots of different colours, as white, red, green, and black, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; or it signifies bread so dry, as Ben Gersom notes, that it crumbles into pieces easily, with which the Vulgate Latin version agrees; or rather through being long kept, it was become dry and hard like crusts, so Noldius F9; or very hard, like bread twice baked, as Castell F11.


FOOTNOTES:

F9 P. 379. No. 1218.
F11 Lex. col. 2395.

Joshua 9:5 In-Context

3 But when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,
4 they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua, loading their donkeys with weathered saddlebags and old, patched wineskins.
5 They put on worn-out, patched sandals and ragged clothes. And the bread they took with them was dry and moldy.
6 When they arrived at the camp of Israel at Gilgal, they told Joshua and the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant land to ask you to make a peace treaty with us.”
7 The Israelites replied to these Hivites, “How do we know you don’t live nearby? For if you do, we cannot make a treaty with you.”
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