“Dry and moldy bread”
They put worn, patched sandals on their feet and threadbare clothing on their bodies, and their whole supply of bread was dry and moldy. (Joshua 9:5 BSB)
What it sounds like today
An odd detail about people showing up with old shoes and stale food.
The cultural key
The worn-out props are a con job, and the whole plot turns on the sanctity of a sworn oath. Israel was commanded to destroy the Canaanite peoples of the land but was permitted to make treaties with distant nations. The Gibeonites, a local Canaanite city, are terrified, so they disguise themselves as ambassadors from a faraway country: they don patched sandals and threadbare clothes and carry dry, crumbling, moldy bread, all staged evidence of a long, exhausting journey, and they claim to have come from a distant land precisely to persuade Israel that a treaty is allowed. Israel inspects the props, fails to consult God, and swears a covenant of peace. When the deception is discovered three days later, Israel is furious but cannot break the oath, because an oath sworn in the LORD's name is binding even when obtained by fraud, so the Gibeonites are spared and made temple servants. A modern reader sees strange costuming; the first hearers understood a clever deception exploiting the treaty rules, and the unbreakable weight of a sworn word.
Recovered meaning
The Gibeonites fake worn sandals, ragged clothes, and moldy bread to pose as distant travelers, since Israel could treaty with far nations but had to destroy local Canaanites. The trick works, and the oath, once sworn in God's name, binds Israel even after the fraud is exposed.