Joshua 9:14
Read Joshua 9:14 Using Other Translations
What does Joshua 9:14 mean?
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;
as they might and should have done, by desiring the high priest to inquire of the Lord by Urim and Thummim; but this they neglected, which, had they attended to, the fraud would have been discovered; or however, they would have had the mind of God about making peace with the Gibeonites, which in all likelihood he would not have disapproved of, they becoming proselytes, and giving up their possessions to Israel; but this did not excuse their neglect.
