Joshua 9:5

_AND OLD SHOES AND CLOUTED UPON THEIR FEET, AND OLD GARMENTS UPON THEM; AND ALL THE BREAD OF THEIR PROVISION WAS DRY AND MOULDY._ Old shoes and clouted. Those who have only one donkey or mule for themselves and baggage frequently dismount and walk-a circumstance which may account for the worn shoes of the pretended travelers. BREAD ... DRY AND MOULDY. This must have been that commonly used by travelers-a sort of biscuit made in the form of large rings, about an inch thick and four or five inches in diameter. Not being so well baked as our biscuits, it becomes hard and mouldy, from the moisture left in the dough. It is usually soaked in water previous to being used....

3-13 Other people heard these tidings, and were driven thereby to make war upon Israel; but the Gibeonites were led to make peace with them. Thus the discovery of the glory and the grace of God in the gospel, is to some a savour of life unto life, but to others a savour of death unto death, 2 Corinthians 2:16. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. The falsehood of the Gibeonites cannot be justified. We must not do evil that good may themselves to the God of Israel, we have reason to think Joshua would have been directed by the oracle of God to spare their lives. But when they had once said, "We are come from a far country," they were led to say it made of skins, and their clothes: one lie brings on another, and that a third, and so on. The way of that sin is especially down-hill. Yet their faith and prudence are to be commended. In submitting to Israel they submitted to the God of...

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_

EXPOSITION THE GIBEONITES.— JOSHUA 9:1 AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN ALL THE KINGS. According to the explanation given above (Joshua 6:5, Joshua 6:15) of the particle כwith the infinitive, this must mean immediately. We must therefore suppose that the distance at which they lived from the scene of the events had prevented them from comprehending their astounding character so clearly as those who lived in the immediate neighbourhood (see Joshua 2:11; Joshua 5:1;...

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 i; or very hard, like bread twice baked, as Castell k. i P. 379. No. 1218. k Lex. col. 2395....

9. THE GIBEONITES CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The confederacy of the enemies (Joshua 9:1)_ 2. The deception of the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:3) 3. The failure (Joshua 9:14) 4. The deception discovered (Joshua 9:16) Israel now comes face to face with the other inhabitants of the land. These enemies, which Israel encountered, are the types of our enemies, and the conflict of God's earthly people is typical of our conflict. There is, however, a difference. Israel's enemies were flesh and blood; ours are not. Israel's conflict was in the land; ours is with the wicked spirits in the heavenly places. Israel was asked to drive the

JOSHUA 9. THE STRATAGEM OF THE GIBEONITES. This account, though composite, is straightforward enough if Joshua 9:17 be omitted. These verses _give_ an account by the priestly writer in which the princes of the congregation take the leading part, and make a treaty which immediately afterwards is made again by Joshua Joshua 9:22 is plainly the continuation of Joshua 9:16. That a treaty was made with the Gibeonites at an early date is a historical fact, but that treaty was very far from making them hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Temple (Joshua 9:23; Joshua 9:2

CLOUTED. patched (Anglo-Saxon, clut.) MOULDY. become crumbly....

The Embassy of the Gibeonites 3. _of Gibeon_ This city was the head of the four towns occupied by the Hivites, the other three being Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim (Joshua 9:17). It appears to have been a sort of independent republic, since we hear of elders there (Joshua 9:11), but not of a king, and is said to have been a great city _like_a royal city (Joshua 10:2), i.e. of the same size and importance as those which the kings of the country made their capitals. The name itself signifies "pertaining to a hill," i.e. built on a hill, and describes the site, which is, by the direct route, about 5 miles north of Jerusalem, on two of the rounded hills peculiar to this neighbourhood. Placed at the head of the pass

_VER._ 5. _AND OLD SHOES, AND CLOUTED, UPON THEIR FEET,_ &C.— The Hebrew is, _shoes spotted, i.e._ of divers colours, by reason of their having been spoiled by the clay and dust; and pieced, as if worn out by the length of the journey; with clothes suited to their shoes, and their _bread dry_ and _mouldy._ In the Hebrew it is _bread dry,_ and נקדים _nikkudim;_ that is to say, literally, _pricked, speckled;_ so they call the cakes pierced with several holes. Buxtorf speaks of them in his Synag. Jude 1:25; Jude 1:12. Perhaps, therefore, it should be translated, _and their bread was dry, like cakes,_ or _biscuits._ Calmet is of this opinion, which he confirms by the testimony of Jonathan, and other circumstances....