Joshua 2

1. AND Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men as spies secretly, saying, Go view the land, and Jericho. And they went, and came into the house of an harlot whose name was 2 Rahab, and lay there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men 3 in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the land. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into 4 thine house : for they be come to search out all the land. And the woman took the two men, and hid them ; and she said, Yes, the men came unto me, but I wist not whence they were : 5 and it came to pass about the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out : whither the men went I wot not : pursue after them quickly ; for ye shall overtake 6 them. But she had brought them up to the roof, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which 7 she had laid in order upon the roof. And the men pursued after them the way to Jordan unto the fords : and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate. 8 And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof ; and she said unto 9 the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that the fear of you is fallen 10 upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when ye came out of Egypt ; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were beyond Jordan, unto Sihon and to 11 Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard it, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more spirit in any man, because of you : for the LORD your God, 12 he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath. Now therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the LORD, since I have dealt kindly with you, that ye also will deal kindly with my father’s 13 house, and give me a true token : and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death. 14 And the men said unto her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business ; and it shall 15 be, when the LORD giveth us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a cord through the window : for her house was upon the town wall, and she 16 dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers light upon you ; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned : and 17 afterward may ye go your way. And the men said unto her, We will be guiltless of this thine 18 oath which thou hast made us to swear. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by : and thou shalt gather unto thee into the house thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy 19 father’s household. And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless : and whosoever shall

20 be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. But if thou utter this our business, then we will be guiltless of thine oath which thou hast made us 21 to swear. And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and 22 they departed : and she bound the scarlet line in the window. And they went, and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned : and the pursuers 23 sought them throughout all the way, but found them not. Then the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun ; and they 24 told him all that had befallen them. And they said unto Joshua, Truly the LORD hath deliv- ered into our hands all the land ; and moreover all the inhabitants of the land do melt away before us.

The command to cross the Jordan involved a direction to make all necessary preparations for that event. Accordingly, instead of enjoining Israel instantly to strike their tents, Joshua turns his attention to providing needful supplies and obtaining the requisite information. The immediate presence of God with them, and the miraculous aid promised them and actually afforded in the crossing of the Jordan, did not lead him to neglect such measures as a wise and prudent leader would take under ordinary circumstances. God lends his succor as it is needed, and to the extent that it is needed. W. H. G.

There was something to be done before Joshua took Israel over the river. The crossing of Jordan was the end of their forty years’ wandering in the wilderness, but it was the beginning of the conflict which was to put them in possession of Canaan ; and this conflict was likely to be a severe one. The Lord had promised to fight for them ; but they would none the less have to fight. The fulfilment of God’s promise was conditional on their own performances. Jericho, the key of Western Palestine, would oppose the first obstacle to the onward march of Israel. Future success or failure would mainly depend on the result of their operations there. As a wise, far-sighted general, therefore, does Joshua, as a first step, send two spies to reconnoitre the strength of this city. E. V.

Joshua himself was full of God’s Spirit and had the oracle of God ready for his direction ; yet now he goes not to the propitiatory for consultation but to the spies. Except where ordinary means fail us, we may not appeal to the immediate help of God. It was promised Joshua that he should lead Israel into the promised land ; yet he knew that the condition of his provident care was included in that assurance of success. Heaven is promised to us, but not to our carelessness. He that hath set this blessed inheritance before us presupposes our wisdom, faith, holiness. Bp. II.

Jericho was the most important town in the Jordan valley. Not only was it conspicuous among the other Canaanitish towns for its walls and gates, and its rich temple filled with gold, silver, iron, brass, and even Mesopotamian drapery, but its situation was such as must always have rendered its occupation necessary to any invader from that quarter. It was the key of Western Palestine, as standing at the entrance of the two main passes into the central mountains. From the issues of the torrent of the Kelt on the south to the copious spring, afterward called “the fountain of Elisha,” on the north, the ancient city ran along the base of the mountains, and thus commanded the oasis of the desert valley, the garden or park of verdure, which clustering round these waters has, through the various stages of its long existence, secured its prosperity and grandeur. Behind the city rose the jagged range of the white limestone mountains of Judæa, here presenting one of the few varied and beautiful outlines that can be seen among the southern hills of Palestine. This range is “the mountain” to which the spies fled while their pursuers vainly sought them on the way to the Jordan. A. P. S.

2. It is to be remembered that Rahab lived in the midst of a people, corrupt, abandoned, and profligate to the last degree. Vices of the most enormous and debasing character were practised without reserve, and received the sanction of every class of people. As these sins pervaded all ranks they would cease to be regarded as infamous, and the term applied to Rahab does not indicate a character below the ordinary standard. Bush.

An attempt has been made to soften the word by which this woman is designated into that of hostess or innkeeper. But there is no authority either in Hebrew or Greek for such an usage. Enough for us to know, however disreputable her life may have been in former times, she came afterward to occupy an honored place among the saints of God. Twice is she referred to in the New Testament for the excellency of her faith. Once by the Apostle Paul, and again by the Apostle James. Sin is no bar to the mercy of God, or to the favors of Providence, if it be repented of, with “fruits meet for repentance.” W. Adams.

4. Hid them. This is justly celebrated by the apostle as an instance of high and heroic faith (Heb. 11 : 31). So strong was her persuasion of the truth of what had been announced to her, so fully was she convinced from what she had heard of the wonders wrought for Israel that their God was the only true God, and consequently that his declared purpose in regard to Canaan would surely come to pass, that she ventures her life upon her faith. She knew that harboring them was exposing herself to the death of a traitor to her country, and yet she runs the risk. Bush.—She contemns her life for the present, that she may save it for the future; neglected her own king and country, for strangers which she never saw; and more feared the destruction of that city before it knew that it had an enemy, than the displeasure and mortal revenge of her king. Bp. H.

5. And now her tongue hides them no less than her hand: her charity was good, her excuse was not good. Evil may not be done that good may come of it: we may do anything but sin for promoting a good cause; and if not in main occasions, how shall God take it that we are not dainty of falsehoods in trifles? Bp. H.—To the teaching of Christianity, we owe the feeling—prevalent among all Christian nations—that a falsehood is a disgrace and a sin; and that a man is bound no less, religiously and morally, by his word than by his oath. All this was unknown to Rahab; who had probably never heard that there was the least harm in lying—much less when an apparently good end was to be answered by it. These considerations may be fairly urged in extenuation of Rahab’s falsehood. God himself claims from us according to what we have, and not according to what we have not. In us who have opportunities of better knowledge, untruthfulness must be judged by a different standard here and hereafter. Kit.

From the uniform testimony of travellers and missionaries, it is evident that among all heathen nations, particularly those of the East, lying ever has been and still is a practice of universal prevalence, and of the criminality of which they have scarcely any sense. So weak is the feeling of obligation as to the observance of strict veracity, that even apparently sincere converts have the greatest difficulty in freeing themselves from the habit of equivocation, and need to be perpetually admonished on that score. Apart from the above-mentioned consideration, it was a difficult problem to be solved, how she should under the circumstances act according to her faith.

She fully believed that what the spies had told her was true. She says not, “I fear,” or “I believe,” but “I know, that the Lord hath given you the land.” Was there then any other conceivable mode by which she could act according to her faith than by practising an imposition upon the king’s officers? By the very fact of exercising a firm faith in the divine testimony, she did virtually throw herself upon the side of Israel and unite her interests with theirs. Henceforth their enemies were hers. If the Canaanites had no right to demand the truth of Israel, they had no right to demand it of her. If it would have been right for the Israelites to have recourse to a stratagem to mislead an enemy in arms, we see not why it was not equally right for her. But that the Israelites often did resort to such expedients in carrying on their wars is beyond question, nor do the Scriptures absolutely condemn them. They are certainly as lawful as war itself is. But whether we justify or condemn her conduct, it can afford no precedent to us. Before we can plead her example in justification of treachery or falsehood, we must be circumstanced as she was. But this it is impossible we ever should be. Bush.

However it was in this case, we are sure it is our duty to speak every man the truth to his neighbor, to dread and detest lying, and never to do that evil that good may come of it, but God accepts what is sincerely and honestly intended though there be a mixture of frailty and folly in it, and is not extreme to mark what we do amiss. H.

6. “She brought them up to the roof of her house, and hid them with the stalks of flax”—the stalks of flax no doubt just cut down, which she had spread upon the roof of her house to steep and to season. How very minute is this incident and how casually does it present itself to our notice! How unimportant a matter it seems under what the spies were hidden! Enough that it answered the purpose and saved their lives. Could the historian have contemplated for one moment the effect which a trifle about a flax-stalk might have in corroboration of his account of the passage of the Jordan? Is it possible for the most jealous examiner of human testimony to imagine that these flax-stalks were fixed upon above all things in the world for the covering of the spies, because they were known to be ripe with the barley, and the barley was known to be ripe at the Passover, and the Passover was known to be the season when the Israelites set foot in Canaan? Rather would he not fairly and candidly confess that in one particular, at least, of this adventure (the only one which we have an opportunity of checking), a religious attention to truth is manifested. Blunt.

He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. As much as to say, “The Lord your God is both omnipotent and omnipresent;” a remarkable confession considering the previous ignorance and darkness of her mind. It was at once an acknowledgment of the true God, and a condemnation of the false gods and idolatrous worship of her countrymen, and showed a supernatural influence of God upon her soul. Bush.

The faith of Rahab was a religious faith: it had God for its object. The terror of the Lord had fallen upon her in common with all the people; and she knew that He had given to Israel their land. She believed the report of those great things which had been done for the invaders now upon the borders of their territory; and this belief was ripened with her into a faith that the God of Israel was God in heaven and on earth. Accordingly she perished not: she was rescued from the destruction brought on the families of Jericho—a salvation extended to her kinsfolk; and we have reason to believe that she was made the heir and partaker of a higher salvation in virtue of her faith. T. C.

In that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way, she did it by faith, such a faith as set her above the fear of man, even of the wrath of the king. She believed, upon the report she had heard of the wonders wrought for Israel, that their God was the only true God, and that therefore their declared design upon Canaan would undoubtedly take effect, and in this faith she sided with them, protected them, and courted their favor. Had she said, “I believe God is yours and Canaan yours, but I dare not show you any kindness,” her faith had been dead and inactive, and would not have justified her. But by this it appeared to be alive that she exposed herself to the utmost peril, even of life, in obedience to her faith. Those only are true believers that can find in their hearts to venture for God; and those that by faith take the Lord for their God, take his people for their people and cast in their lot among them. H.

Remembering who, and what, and among whom she had been all her life-time, her emphatic confession, that Jehovah, the God of Israel, “He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath;” her unwavering faith in the truth of His promises, which moved her to self-denying action at such danger and sacrifice, and supported her in it; her separation from her countrymen; her conduct toward the spies at the risk of her life—all show her to have had that faith which “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen;” not a “dead faith,” “without works,” but one which “wrought with her works, and by works was made perfect.” And He who “giveth more grace” to them who wisely use what they have, marvellously owned and blessed this “first-truits” from among the Gentiles. Her history, which, in all its circumstances, bears a remarkable analogy to that of the woman of Samaria, is recorded for the instruction of the Church. And, as in the case of the Hebrew midwives who had preserved Israel, God also “made her a house.” She became the wife of Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah, and from her sprang in direct line both David (Ruth 4: 21) and David’s Lord (Matt. 1: 4). A. E.

12. Swear unto me by the Lord. This proposal still further displays the sincerity and the strength of her faith. While the people of Israel, with the miracles of the divine power constantly before their eyes, were incessantly prone to stagger at the promises and give way to unbelief, she, upon the mere hearsay report of these wonders, is so firmly persuaded of their truth that she desires to enter covenant with the spies for her own preservation and that of her family. Though they were now in perilous circumstances, shut up within the walls of Jericho and surrounded by enemies, yet she treats with them as if they had already stormed the city and had the power of life and death in their hands. Bush.

16. She directs them to leave the high road and abscond in the mountains till the pursuers were returned, for till then they could not safely venture over Jordan. Those that are in the way of God and their duty may expect that Providence will protect them, but that will not excuse them from taking all prudent methods for their own safety. God will keep us, but we must not wilfully expose ourselves. Providence must be trusted but not tempted. H.

18. That scarlet cord was to be put to another use. After they had been lowered down outside of the city wall, the spies called out to Rahab, “Behold when we come into the land thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by”—and this was to be a sign of security for her and for all her house in the coming days of carnage. That which she had used for the preservation of the spies, was to be the instrument of her own preservation afterward. The good which she did to others, by a scarlet cord from her window, was to be abundantly compensated by the self-same and not another scarlet thread pendent from the very same window. The world is full of wonderful compensations. Many inequalities, many things incomplete, remind us of the necessity of a future judgment and a future redress; but there are manifold rewards this side of the final Assize. These are sometimes so striking that they have come to be called “poetic justice.” There is something like romance in the manner in which good and evil meet with retribution by the reaction of their own instruments. Haman is hung on the same gallows he had erected for Mordecai. The bread cast upon the waters is found again after many days. Favors conferred upon others are returned in blessings upon ourselves. That which we do in the way of honoring God and serving our fellow-men, is made in time and in turn a blessing and comfort and honor to ourselves. Ebed-melech the Ethiopian was kind to Jeremiah when he was shut up in prison, and so Jeremiah was bidden to say to Ebed-melech, in prospect of the city’s destruction, “I will surely deliver thee and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee, because thou hast put thy trust in Me, saith the Lord.” W. Adams.

Behold, this is the saving color: the destroying angel sees the door-cheeks of the Israelites sprinkled with red and passes them over: the warriors of Israel see the window of Rahab dyed with red, and save her family from the common destruction. If our souls have this tincture of the precious blood of our Saviour, upon our doors or windows, we are safe. But if any one of the brethren of Rahab shall fly from this red flag, and rove about the city, and not contain himself under that roof which hid the spies, it is in vain for him to tell the avengers that he is Rahab’s brother: that title will not save him in the street; within doors it will. If we will wander out of the limits that God hath set us, we cast ourselves out of his protection; we cannot challenge the benefit of his gracious preservation and our most precious redemption, when we fly out into the by-ways of our own hearts, not for innocence, but for safety and harbor. The Church is that house of Rahab, which is saved when all Jericho shall perish. While we keep us in the lists thereof we cannot miscarry, through misopinion; but when once we run out of it, let us look for judgment from God, and error in our own judgment. Bp. H.

22. Abode there three days.** Not three entire days, but one whole day and part of two others. They were sent out on the sixth day of the month Nisan, and escaped from Jericho the same night. The seventh day they spent in the mountains. On the eighth they returned to the camp. These three days are reckoned in the same manner as the three days of our Lord’s burial. Bush.—23, 24. After they had been concealed for three days in the mountains, they returned and related to Joshua what they had found, and said, “The Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the land do faint because of us.” As this had been prophesied in Ex. 15: 15; 23: 27; De. 11: 25, and was now fulfilled, the faith of Rahab so much encouraged the men that they understood still better the power of their God, and put a filial confidence in his firm purpose to give them the land, and thereby strengthened the faith both of their leader and of his people. C. G. B.—These two spies act, as Caleb and Joshua had done thirty-eight years before. They took no note of Jericho’s great walls, and of her vigilant king, but of the Lord’s preparation for Israel’s victory. Crosby.

PREPARATION FOR MOVEMENT. CONTINGENT FROM REUBEN, GAD, AND HALF-MANASSEH. ADVANCE TO THE JORDAN.