Joshua 9:5

5 [They wore] old, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies. Their entire provision of bread was dry and crumbly.

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 When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai,
4 they acted deceptively. They gathered provisions and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and old wineskins, cracked and mended.
5 [They wore] old, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies. Their entire provision of bread was dry and crumbly.
6 They went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant land. Please make a treaty with us."
7 The men of Israel replied to the Hivites, "Perhaps you live among us. How can we make a treaty with you?"
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