And the men took of their victuals
That is, the princes of Israel took thereof; not to eat of them,
for it cannot be thought that such personages would eat of such
dry and mouldy bread, and especially as they were now in a
plentiful country, and possessed of the fruits of it; but to see
whether it was in such a plight and condition as they said,
whereby they might judge of the truth of what they said; and they
learned and knew, as R. Jonah observes, from the dryness of their
food, that it was truth they said; and so the Targum, the men
hearkened to their words; and so Jarchi, they believed what they
said on sight of their provisions; but, according to Kimchi and
Ben Melech, they ate with them, to confirm the covenant they made
with them; but had this been the case, as it sometimes was a
custom to eat together at making covenants, see ( Genesis
26:30 ) ; the princes would doubtless have provided a better
entertainment for such a purpose: the "margin" of our Bibles
leads to the other sense,
``they received the men by reason of their victuals:''and asked not [counsel] at the mouth of the Lord;