a foot (as used in walking) · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
old
בָּל֖וֹתba.Lot
H1087
worn out · adjective, feminine plural absolute
garments
וּשְׂלָמ֥וֹתu.se.la.Mot
H8008
a dress · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
bread
לֶ֣חֶםLe.chem
H3899
food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular construct
provision
צֵידָ֔םtzei.Dam
H6718
the chase · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
dry
יָבֵ֖שׁya.Vesh
H3001
to be ashamed · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
mouldy
נִקֻּדִֽיםni.ku.Dim
H5350
a crumb (as broken to spots) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Luke 15:22 But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:
Deuteronomy 29:5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.
Deuteronomy 33:25 Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.
Joshua 9:13 And these bottles of wine, which we filled, were new; and, behold, they be rent: and these our garments and our shoes are become old by reas…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Joshua 9:3-14
Here, I. The Gibeonites desire to make peace with Israel, being alarmed by the tidings they heard of the destruction of Jericho, Jos 9:3. Other people heard those tidings, and were irritated thereby to make war upon Israel; but the Gibeonites heard them and were induced to make peace with them. Thus the discovery of the glory and grace of God in the gospel is to some a savour of life unto life, but to others a savour of death unto death, Co2 2:16. The same sun softens wax and hardens clay. I do not remember that we read any where of a king of Gibeon. Had their government been at this time in a single person, perhaps his heart would have been too high to yield to Israel, and he would have joi…
old shoes and clouted--Those who have but one ass or mule for themselves and baggage frequently dismount and walk--a circumstance which may account for the worn shoes of the pretended travellers.
bread . . . dry and mouldy--This must have been that commonly used by travellers--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.
Adam Clarke on 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;…
Alliance — A treaty between nations, or between individuals, for their mutual advantage. Abraham formed an alliance with some of the Canaanitish princes (Gen. 14:13), also with Abimelech (21:22-32). Joshua and…
Clouted — patched. (Joshua 9:5)
Gibeon — Hill-city, “one of the royal cities, greater than Ai, and all the men thereof were mighty” (Josh. 10:2). Its inhabitants were Hivites (11:19). It lay within the territory of Benjamin, and became a…
Mouldy — Of the Gibeonites it is said that “all the bread of their provision was dry and mouldy” (Josh. 9:5, 12). The Hebrew word here rendered “mouldy” (nikuddim) is rendered “cracknels” in 1 Kings 14:3, and…
Amorites, The · The Gibeonites a tribe of, deceived Israel into a league — The Gibeonites a tribe of, deceived Israel into a league
Bread · When old, dry and mouldy — When old, dry and mouldy
Confidence · Joshua, by the Gibeonites — Joshua, by the Gibeonites
Contracts · 21:2-6; — 21:2-6;
Craftiness · .Gibeonites, in — .Gibeonites, in
Diplomacy · General references — General references
Garments · Grew old and wore out — Grew old and wore out
Gibeonites · Israel: Deceived by — Israel: Deceived by
Joshua · .Makes a treaty with the Gibeonites
John Gill on 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…
Joshua 9:1-15
1. And it came to pass, when all the kings which were on this side Jordan, in the hills, and in the valleys, and in all the coasts of the great sea over against Lebanon, the Hittite, and the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, heard thereof,
1. Quum autem audissent omnes reges qui erant trans Jordanem in monte, et in planitie, et in toto tractu marls magni e regione Libani, Hitthaeus, Amorrhaeus, Chananaeus, Pherisaeus, Hivaeus, et Jebusaeus,
2. That they gathered themselves together, to fight with Joshua and with Israel, with one accord.
2. Congregaverunt se pariter ad pugnandum cum Josue et Israel uno consensu.
3. And when the inhabitant…
But the inhabitants of a republic, which included not only Gibeon the capital, but the towns of Chephirah, Beeroth, and Kirjath-jearim also, acted differently from the rest. Gibeon (Γαβάων, Gabaon, lxx Vulg.) was larger than Ai, being one of the royal cities (Jos 10:2), and was inhabited by Hivites, who were a brave people (Jos 10:7; Jos 11:19). It was afterwards allotted to the tribe of Benjamin, and set apart as a Levitical town (Jos 18:25; Jos 21:17). After the destruction of Nob by Saul, the tabernacle was removed thither, and there it remained till the building of Solomon's temple (Ch1 16:39; Ch1 21:29; Kg1 3:4-5; Ch2 1:3.). According to Josephus, it was forty or fifty stadia from Jeru…
Long-distance travel was difficult, dirty, and dangerous in those days. If they were to carry off their deception, the Gibeonite supplies, clothes, and even food had to look the part.
Rashi on Joshua 9:5
Moldy. “Arson” in old French is an expression of מוֹקֵד, fire or heat.8Rashi explains that נִקֻדִים indicates that the bread was not merely dry but burned as toast which would preserve it over a long period. He therefore would reject the translation of נְקֻדִים as moldy. Targum Yonasan also translates נִקֻדִים as כִּסְנִין.
Oath · The Israelites confirm the covenant with the Hivites — The Israelites confirm the covenant with the Hivites
Shoes · Worn out by a long journey — Worn out by a long journey
Travellers · After a long journey, described — After a long journey, described
Treaty · .Israelites and Gibeonites — .Israelites and Gibeonites
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
