Rahab and the Spies

Joshua, the son of Nun, dispatched two men from Shittim to go secretly as spies to view the land and the city of Jericho (Joshua 2:1). Upon entering the city, the men went to the house of Rahab, a prostitute, and lodged there. The king of Jericho received a report that Israelite men had arrived to search out the country, prompting him to send a command to Rahab to bring out the men who had entered her house. The text does not say how the king identified the men or their location so quickly.

Rahab took the two men and hid them, but she informed the king's messengers that the men had left her house at the time of the gate's closing at dark (Joshua 2:4-5). She claimed she did not know where they were from and suggested that the king's men pursue them quickly. However, she had actually brought the spies up to the roof and hidden them under stalks of flax that she had laid out. After the king's messengers departed toward the fords of the Jordan, Rahab went to the roof to speak with the spies.

She acknowledged to the men that the Lord had given them the land and that a great fear of the Israelites had fallen upon the inhabitants of the country (Joshua 2:9). She requested a true token that her father, mother, brothers, sisters, and all they owned would be delivered from death. The men agreed to this, stating their lives would be given for hers if she did not report their business. They instructed her to tie a scarlet cord in the window through which she let them down, as the house was built into the city wall (Joshua 2:15-18). The text does not say the specific time of day they departed, only that they fled to the mountains for three days before returning to Joshua.