Joshua 9:5

5 and full eld shoes, the which were sewed together with old patches, to show their oldness; and these men were clothed with full old clothes; also the loaves, which they bare for lifelode in the way, were hard and broken into gobbets (and the bread, which they carried for sustenance on the way, was hard and broken into pieces).

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Joshua 9:5 In-Context

3 And they that dwelt in Gibeon, heard (of) all the things that Joshua had done to Jericho, and to Ai;

4 and they thought fellily, and took to themselves meats, and putted eld sackcloths on asses, and wine bottles broken, and sewed (up)/and patched, (and they thought out things craftily, and then took some food for themselves, and put old sackcloths upon their donkeys, and wine bottles that were broken and then sewed up, or patched,)

5 and full eld shoes, the which were sewed together with old patches, to show their oldness; and these men were clothed with full old clothes; also the loaves, which they bare for lifelode in the way, were hard and broken into gobbets (and the bread, which they carried for sustenance on the way, was hard and broken into pieces).

6 And they went to Joshua, that dwelled then in tents in Gilgal (who lived then in the camp at Gilgal); and they said to him, and to all Israel together, We [have] come from a far land, and we covet to make peace with you.

7 And the men of Israel answered to them, and said, Lest peradventure ye dwell in the land, which is due to us by heritage, and we may not make bond of peace with you. (And the Israelites answered, and said to them, Agreed, unless ye live in the land that is due to us by inheritance, and then we cannot make a covenant with you.)