Lest anyone allot them, in this foreign land, far from the camp, a morsel of manna, Abulensis labours much in quaestions 57, 58, 59, 60, 61. But these pertain more aptly to chapter 5, and therefore—
(col. 378)
—I conclude briefly: either [that] in those three days they fasted; or [that] they used food indeed, but such as they had either carried with them from the camp, or received from Rahab. For 1. [that] a three-day fast is natural, and not unusual, I have shown ch. 3 [of] Tobit, fol. 50; and there can be added that Egyptian [who was] deserted, 1 Sam. [Reg.] ch. penult. [30] v. 12; likewise many pious men, about whom St. Augustine, bk. On the morals of the Catholic Church ch. 33: “Fasts altogether incredible I have learned [that] many practice; for, daily once, toward night, to refresh the body — which is everywhere most usual — but to lead a continuous three-day [fast], or oftener even longer, without food and drink. And this not in men only, but even in women.” And this was the easier for the spies, by how much this three-day [period] was, by synecdoche, more contracted [shorter]. For on its first day they could eat in the camp, then in the evening at Rahab’s; finally on the third day too, when they had returned to Joshua. But I think [it] more like the truth [that] on that [middle] day too they had [something] to eat — either on account of the custom of the ancient age, in which travellers carried necessaries with them, or rather on account of the exceptional hospitality and benevolence of Rahab herself. For how would she, [who] appointed them a three-day hiding, whom she loved exceedingly, [and] whom she had chosen [as] the authors of her own and her people’s safety, furnish [them] with no provision for the journey? For guests give guest-gifts and parting-presents to guests; and [would] a woman so hospitable, prudent, and beneficent — [one] whom she so watched over, to whom she committed herself, her own, and all hers — give nothing?
For the rest, what they did can be conjectured. In that nocturnal time, having prayed to God [their] Leader, they crept to the mountains with a very suspended [cautious] step and with minds and ears excellently attentive, [and] there solicitously kept watch; when it grew light, they looked around hither and thither, went somewhere now and then, scouted the interior of Canaan — especially the Jerusalem part — from the highest places that were permitted [them], and above all directed the edge of [their] eyes upon the King’s guards, [to see] whether they could spy them searching everywhere, or returning to the city. This was their work; nor do I doubt but that they sometimes lifted [their] hands to heaven, and prayed to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that a happy return to their Leader be granted them by him — [a return] which should be pleasing to him and salutary to the whole people of the Israelites.