Yosua 2:1-7

Joshua Sends Spies into the Land

2:1 Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: ¹  “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho.” ²  They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there. ³  2:2 The king of Jericho received this report: “Note well! ⁴  Israelite men have come here tonight ⁵  to spy on the land.” 2:3 So the king of Jericho sent this order to Rahab: ⁶  “Turn over ⁷  the men who came to you ⁸  – the ones who came to your house ⁹  – for they have come to spy on the whole land!” 2:4 But the woman hid the two men ¹⁰  and replied, “Yes, these men were clients of mine, ¹¹  but I didn’t know where they came from. 2:5 When it was time to shut the city gate for the night, the men left. ¹²  I don’t know where they were heading. Chase after them quickly, for you have time to catch them!” 2:6 (Now she had taken them up to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax she had spread out ¹³  on the roof.) 2:7 Meanwhile ¹⁴  the king’s men tried to find them on the road to the Jordan River ¹⁵  near the fords. ¹⁶  The city gate was shut as soon as they set out in pursuit of them. ¹⁷ 

Yosua 6:21-25

6:21 They annihilated with the sword everything that breathed in the city, ¹⁸  including men and women, young and old, as well as cattle, sheep, and donkeys. 6:22 Joshua told the two men who had spied on the land, “Enter the prostitute’s house ¹⁹  and bring out the woman and all who belong to her as you promised her.” ²⁰  6:23 So the young spies went and brought out Rahab, her father, mother, brothers, and all who belonged to her. They brought out her whole family and took them to a place outside ²¹  the Israelite camp. 6:24 But they burned ²²  the city and all that was in it, except for the silver, gold, and bronze and iron items they put in the treasury of the Lord’s house. ²³  6:25 Yet Joshua spared ²⁴  Rahab the prostitute, her father’s family, ²⁵  and all who belonged to her. She lives in Israel ²⁶  to this very day because she hid the messengers Joshua sent to spy on Jericho. ²⁷ 

[2:1]  ¹ tn Heb “Joshua, son of Nun, sent from Shittim two men, spies, secretly, saying.”

[2:1]  ² tn Heb “go, see the land, and Jericho.”

[2:1]  map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[2:1]  ³ tn Heb “they went and entered the house of a woman, a prostitute, and her name was Rahab, and they slept there.”

[2:2]  ⁴ tn Or “look.”

[2:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “men have come here tonight from the sons of Israel.”

[2:3]  ⁶ tn Heb “and the king of Jericho sent to Rahab, saying.”

[2:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “bring out.”

[2:3]  ⁸ tn The idiom “come to” (בוֹא אֶל, bo’ ’el) probably has sexual connotations here, as it often does elsewhere when a man “comes to” a woman. If so, the phrase could be translated “your clients.” The instructions reflect Rahab’s perspective as to the identity of the men.

[2:3]  ⁹ tn The words “the ones who came to your house” (Heb “who came to your house”) may be a euphemistic scribal addition designed to blur the sexual connotation of the preceding words.

[2:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “The woman took the two men and hid him.” The third masculine singular pronominal suffix on “hid” has to be a scribal error (see GKC §135.p).

[2:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the men came to me.” See the note on this phrase in v. 3.

[2:5]  ¹² tn Heb “And the gate was to be shut in the darkness and the men went out.”

[2:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “arranged in rows by her.”

[2:7]  ¹⁴ tn Another way to translate vv. 6-7 would be, “While she took them up to the roof and hid them…, the king’s men tried to find them….” Both of the main clauses have the subject prior to the predicate, perhaps indicating simultaneous action. (On the grammatical point, see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 42, §235.) In this case Rahab moves the Israelite spies from the hiding place referred to in v. 4 to a safer and less accessible hiding place.

[2:7]  ¹⁵ tn The word “River” is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied for clarity.

[2:7]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “And the men chased after them [on] the road [leading to] the Jordan to the fords.” The text is written from the perspective of the king’s men. As far as they were concerned, they were chasing the spies.

[2:7]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “And they shut the gate after – as soon as the ones chasing after them went out.” The expressions “after” and “as soon as” may represent a conflation of alternate readings.

[6:21]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “all which was in the city.”

[6:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the house of the woman, the prostitute.”

[6:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and bring out from there the woman and all who belong to her as you swore on oath to her.”

[6:23]  ²¹ tn Or “placed them outside.”

[6:24]  ²² tn The Hebrew text adds “with fire.”

[6:24]  ²³ tn Heb “the treasury of the house of the Lord.” Technically the Lord did not have a “house” yet, so perhaps this refers to the tabernacle using later terminology.

[6:25]  ²⁴ tn Heb “kept alive.”

[6:25]  ²⁵ tn Heb the house of her father.”

[6:25]  ²⁶ tn Or “among the Israelites”; Heb “in the midst of Israel.”

[6:25]  ²⁷ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.