Joshua 9:5

Verse Joshua 9:5. Old shoes and clouted] Their sandals, they pretended had been worn out by long and difficult travelling, and they had been obliged to have them frequently patched during the way; their garments also were worn thin; and what remained of their bread was mouldy-spotted with age, or, as our old version has it, bored-pierced with many holes by the vermin which had bred in it, through the length of the time it had been in their sacks; and this is the most literal meaning of the original נקדים nikkudim, which means spotted or pierced with many holes.

The old and clouted shoes have been a subject of some controversy: the Hebrew word בלות baloth signifies worn out, from בלה balah, to wear away; and מטלאות metullaoth, from טלא tala, to spot or patch, i.e., spotted with patches. Our word clouted, in the Anglo-Saxon [A.S.] signifies seamed up, patched; from [A.S.] clout, rag, or small piece of cloth, used for piecing or patching. But some suppose the word here comes from clouet, the diminutive of clou, a small nail, with which the Gibeonites had fortified the soles of their shoes, to prevent them from wearing out in so long a journey; but this seems very unlikely; and our old English term clouted-seamed or patched - expresses the spirit of the Hebrew word.