Rahab

The memorable woman of the city of Jericho, of whose faith the Holy Ghost hath given such honourable testimony, Heb. xi. 31. Her name is derived from Raah, and signifies proud. And if there be aught upon earth to make sinful dust and ashes proud, surely the faith this woman possessed formed the strongest temptation to it; when we consider who she was, what she was; where she lived, and how she acted in the cause of the Lord. Her history is as great and striking, in the illustrious actings of her faith, as any in therecordsof truth. She was one of the inhabitants of Canaan, a Gentile, an alien, and by nature an enemy to the commonwealth of Israel, without hope, and without God in the world." Moreover, she was, as we say, a publican, and an harlot, not only kept an inn, exposed to numberless temptations, but a woman of ill - fame, notoriously known for such a character. She lived also in the accursed city of Jericho, a city devoted to destruction before the Lord, and of peculiar malignity of evil in the Lord’s sight. And yet with all those disadvantages, this Rahab, this harlot, was a believer in the Lord God of Israel! Oh, the wonders of distinguishing grace! And what tends yet more to raise our views of the Lord’s peculiar manifestation and love to this poor harlot, is the consideration that from the stock of this woman, after the flesh, the Lord appointed the future advent of his dear Son. By her marriage to Salmon; from whom sprang Boaz; and by the marriage of Boaz with Ruth, sprang Obed; and from Obed, Jesse; and from Jesse, David; and from David, aftertwice fourteen generations after the flesh, sprang Christ. (See Matt. i. 1 - 17.) What subjects of wonder the glorious redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ involves in it! Here, as in a thou sand instances beside, we learn that the Lord’s ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts!" I pray the reader to give a diligent attention to her history, Josh. 2: throughout. We meet with the mention of another Rahab, Ps. l37. 4. And in Ps. lx29. 10, Rahab is said to be broken in pieces: by which is meant most probably, Pharaoh and his host. We find, and not unfrequently, names figuratively used to denote the Lord’s enemies. Thus the Psalmist elsewhere saith, Thou brakest the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gavest him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wilderness." (Ps. l24. 13, 14.) Here is an evident allusion to the destruction of Pharaoh; and his host in the Red Sea; and afterwords causing the people, when at any time in their wilderness - state, to meet with difficulties, that the recollection of this mighty deliverance might becomefood to their faith, to help them through any present trouble.

was a hostess of the city of Jericho, who received and concealed the spies sent by Joshua. The Hebrew calls her Zona, Jos 2:1, which Jerom and many others understand of a prostitute. Others think she was only a hostess or innkeeper, and that this is the true signification of the original word. Had she been a woman of ill fame, would Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah, have taken her to wife! Or could he have done it by the law? Beside, the spies of Joshua would hardly have gone to lodge with a common harlot, they who were charged with so nice and dangerous a commission. Those who maintain that she was a harlot, pretend that she was perhaps one of those women who prostituted themselves in honour of the Pagan deities; as if this could extenuate her crime, or the scandal of her profession if she was a public woman. It is also observable that such women are called kadeshah, not zona, in the Hebrew. Rahab married Salmon, a prince of Judah, by whom she had Boaz, from whom descended Obed, Jesse, and David. Thus Jesus Christ condescended to reckon this Canaanitish woman among his ancestors. St. Paul magnifies the faith of Rahab, Heb 11:31. Rahab is also a name of Egypt, Isa 30:7; Isa 51:9.

Rahab, 1

Ra´hab, a name signifying ’sea-monster,’ which is applied as an appellation to Egypt in Psa 74:13-14; Psa 87:4; Psa 89:10; Isa 51:9 (and sometimes to its king, Eze 29:3; Eze 33:3, comp. Psa 68:31); which metaphorical designation probably involves an allusion to the crocodiles, hippopotami, and other aquatic creatures of the Nile.

Rahab, 2

Ra´hab, properly Rachab (large) a woman of Jericho who received into her house the two spies who were sent by Joshua into that city; concealed them under the flax laid out upon the house-top, when they were sought after; and, having given them important information, which showed that the inhabitants were much disheartened at the miracles which had attended the march of the Israelites, enabled them to escape over the wall of the town, upon which her dwelling was situated. For this important service Rahab and her kindred were saved by the Hebrews from the general massacre which followed the taking of Jericho (Jos 2:1-21; Jos 6:17; comp. Heb 11:31).

In the narrative of these transactions Rahab is called zonah, which our own, after the ancient versions, renders ’harlot.’ The Jewish writers, however, being unwilling to entertain the idea of their ancestors being involved in a disreputable association at the commencement of their great undertaking, chose to interpret the word ’hostess,’ one who keeps a public house. But the word signifies harlot in every other text where it occurs, the idea of ’hostess’ not being represented by this or any other word in Hebrew, as the function represented by it did not exist. There were no inns; and when certain substitutes for inns eventually came into use, they were never, in any Eastern country, kept by women. On the other hand, strangers from beyond the river might have repaired to the house of a harlot without suspicion or remark. The house of such a woman was also the only one to which they, as perfect strangers, could have had access, and certainly the only one in which they could calculate on obtaining the information they required without danger from male inmates. If we are concerned for the morality of Rahab, the best proof of her reformation is found in the fact of her subsequent marriage to Salmon: this implies her previous conversion to Judaism, for which indeed her discourse with the spies evinces that she was prepared.

The English word Rahab represents two different Hebrew words:\par 1. RAHAB, a Canaanite woman of Jericho, who gave shelter to the two spies sent in thither by Joshua; and in return was spared, with all her kindred, when the city was taken and destroyed, Jos 2:1-21 6:17-25. Her faith, in doing this, is commended in Heb 11:31 Jas 2:25 . The Jews and many Christians endeavor to show that Rahab was only an honest innkeeper; but more probably the designation of "harlot" given to her in our Bible is correct. If she had at some time led a dissolute life, she had evidently repented; and she afterwards became a worshipper of Jehovah, and the wife of Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah, Rth 4:21 Mat 1:4 .\par The penitent publican and sinner are always welcome to Christ; and many such a one, through the renovating power of grace, will shine gloriously in heaven, while the unbelieving moralist will perish in his sins.\par 2. RAHAB, pride, insolence, a symbolical name for Egypt, Psa 87:4 89:10 Isa 30:7 51:9. In the last of these passages, Egypt is further symbolized as a ferocious sea-monster; but it is doubtful whether the word Rahab itself is ever used to denote a sea-monster.\par

Ra’hab. (wide).

1. A celebrated woman of Jericho, who received the spies sent by Joshua, to spy out the land, hid them in her house from the pursuit of her countrymen, was saved with all her family when the Israelites sacked the city, and became the wife of Salmon, and the ancestress of the Messiah. Jos 2:1; Mat 1:5. (B.C. 1450).

She was a "harlot", and probably combined the trade of lodging-keeper for wayfaring men. Her reception of the spies, the artifice by which she concealed them from the king: their escape, and the saving of Rahab and her family at the capture of the city in accordance with their promise, are told in the narrative of Jos 2:1. As regards Rahab herself, she probably repented, and we learn from Mat 1:5, that she became the wife of Salmon, the son of Naasson, and the mother of Boaz, Jesse’s grandfather.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that "by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace," Heb 11:31, and St. James fortifies his doctrine of justification by works by asking, "Was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" Jas 2:25.

2. A poetical name of Egypt, Psa 89:10; Isa 51:9, signifying "fierceness, insolence, pride." Rahab, as a name of Egypt, occurs once only, without reference to the Exodus: this is in Psa 87:4 . In Isa 30:7, the name is alluded to.

Joshua 2; Joshua 6. The harlot of Jericho who received Joshua’s spies. She had a house of her own, separate from her father, mother, brothers, and sisters; perhaps a lodging convenient for travelers, being situated on the wall. The flax she spread on her roof and the scarlet line make it likely she manufactured linen and dyed, as did the Phoenicians; compare Jos 7:21 the "Babylonian garment," implying a trade in such articles with Mesopotamia. Jericho, near the fords of Jordan, would be an emporium between Phoenicia and Babylon and Egypt. Hence, Rahab knew the facts of the Exodus, the miraculous passage of the Red Sea, and the overthrow of Sihon and Og. God made the truth bring the conviction to her mind that Israel would conquer Canaan, and that "Jehovah Israel’s God is God in heaven above and in earth beneath." Faith induced her, at the risk of her life, to shelter the spies under the stalks of flax spread on the flat roof. Her deceiving the king of Jericho and saying they had "gone she knew not where" is not commended in Scripture, but only the faith which was the mainspring of her conduct.

Scripture forbids a lie, or any "evil doing, that good may come" (Rom 3:7-8). (See JAEL.) Next, she told them of the panic which Israel’s advance caused among her countrymen, and obtained from them the promise that when Israel took Jericho she and her father, mother, brethren, and sisters, and all of the household, should be saved; the scarlet line by which they were let down from her window in the wall was the pledge, placed in the window. By her counsel they hid three days in the mountains (Quarantana, abounding in caves, a wall of rock rising 1,200 ft. precipitously) bounding the Jericho plain on the N.; and when the pursuers had returned, and the Jordan fords were clear, they escaped back to Israel’s camp. Their tidings must have much encouraged the army. Joshua faithfully kept the promise to her at the destruction of Jericho, causing the two spies to bring out Rahab and all her kindred from her house, which was under the protection of the scarlet line. Salmon, then a youth, who married her, was probably one of the two whom she had saved, gratitude leading on to love and erasing the remembrance of her former life of shame.

Her faith was richly rewarded, she becoming mother of Boaz (Rth 4:21), an ancestress of Messiah; one of the four women, all foreigners, Thamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba, named in Matthew’s genealogy (Mat 1:5). In it "none of the holy women are included, only those whom the Scriptures blame, in order that He who came in behalf of sinners, being Himself born of sinners, might destroy the sins of all" (Jerome). Possibly the 345 "children of Jericho" were posterity of her kindred, settled in Israel (Ezr 2:34; Neh 3:2). Harlotry was not counted "sin" among the pagan, though not respectable; but when she adopted a pure faith she began a pure life. Believing knowledge of God’s purpose concerning Israel and Jericho made her renounce the lower duty, patriotism, for the higher one, piety; she could only have been faithful to her country by unfaithfulness to her God. She renounced the pollution of her country’s gods, with which her own harlotry may have been connected, to join Jehovah and His people.

Her provision for her parents’ and relatives’ safety shows that self was not her sole consideration. Her hospitality to the spies was for their Lord’s sake (Mat 10:40-42). Heb 11:31; "by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that disobeyed not (apeitheesasin, God’s will manifested by miracles in Israel’s behalf) when she had received the spies in peace," i.e. securing them from hurt. The season, as otherwise comes out, was four days before Passover, "on the tenth day of the first month," barley harvest time, when Jordan periodically overflowed its banks. The flax harvest was simultaneous with barley harvest, it appears from Exo 9:31. In undesigned coincidence with these casual notices, Rahab "hid the spies with the stalks of flax," doubtless just cut down and spread on the roof of her house (Jos 2:6; Jos 3:15; Jos 4:19; Jos 5:10-11). Paul quotes Rahab as exemplifying "faith"; James (Jas 2:25) quotes Rahab as exemplifying justification by works evidentially.

Therefore Paul’s justification by faith alone means a faith, not dead, but working by love (Gal 5:6). Again, Rahab’s act cannot prove justification by works as such, for she was a woman of bad character. But as an example of grace, justifying through an operative as opposed to mere verbal faith, none could be more suitable than the saved "harlot." She believed, so as to act on her belief, what her countrymen disbelieved; and this in the face of every improbability that an unwarlike force would conquer a well armed one, far more numerous. She believed with the heart (Rom 10:9-10), confessed with the mouth, and acted on her profession at the risk of her life. A woman of loose life, and a Gentile, is justified even as Abraham, the father of the Jews, the friend of God, was; showing that justifying, working faith manifests itself in every class.

The nature of the works alleged, not works of charity and virtue, but works the value of which consists in their being proofs of faith, proves that James quotes them as evidences of faith, faith expressed in act. We are "justified by works" in the sense that we are justified by a faith which always works where it has the opportunity. The scarlet line typifies Jesus’ blood, that secures from wrath the Gentiles and even harlots and notorious sinners (Mat 21:31-32), within His church, even as the sprinkled blood of the paschal lamb secured Israel in their houses, and typified the same all-atoning blood. Rahab is an instance of the call of Gentiles anticipatory of that under the gospel.

Rahab (râ’hăb), large. 1. A woman of Jericho, who received and concealed two Hebrew spies. In the siege of the city Rahab and her family were spared by the Hebrews from the general massacre of the inhabitants. Jos 2:1-24; Jos 6:17-27. She is called "a harlot;" but the proof of her reformation is found in the eminence of her faith. Heb 11:31; Jas 2:25. She subsequently married Salmon, a prince of Judah, and became an ancestress of David, and appears in the genealogy of Christ. Rth 4:20; Mat 1:5. 2. Rahab, pride. An appellation for Egypt, designating the insolence and violence of its princes and inhabitants. Psa 87:4; Psa 89:10; Isa 51:9.

[Ra’hab]

A poetical name, signifying ’insolence,’ given to Egypt. Psa 87:4; Psa 89:10; Isa 51:9. The same word occurs in Isa 30:7, where the R.V. reads "therefore have I called her Rahab that sitteth still."

RAHAB.—The mother of Boaz, and thus an ancestress of our Lord (Mat 1:5).

‘These names [those of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba] are probably introduced as those of women in whose case circumstances were overruled by the Divine providence which, as it might have seemed, should have excluded them from a place in the ancestral line of the Messiah. They were in a sense forerunners of the Virgin Mary’ (W. C. Allen, Com. ad loc.).

The ‘faith’ of Rahab is extolled in Heb 11:31, and her ‘works’ in Jas 2:25.

By: Wilhelm Bacher, Jacob Zallel Lauterbach

Originally a mythical name designating the abyss or the sea; subsequently applied to Egypt. Job ix. 13 and xxvi. 12 indicate that it is an alternative for "Tiamat," the Babylonian name of the dragon of darkness and chaos; Ps. lxxxix. 9 also indicates that "Rahab" is a name applied to the sea-monster, the dragon. According to a sentence preserved in the Talmud, "Rahab" is the name of the demon, the ruler of the sea ("Sar shel Yam"; B. B. 74b). It is used as a designation for Egypt in Ps. lxxxvii. 4 and Isa. xxx. 7. Similarly, in Isa. li. 9, which alludes to the exodus from Egypt, the destruction of Pharaoh is described as a smiting of the great sea-monster Rahab or the dragon Tannin. The juxtaposition of "Rahab" and "Tannin" in this passageexplains why "Rahab" was used as a designation for Egypt, which was otherwise called "Tannin" (see Ezek. xxix. 3, Hebr.). It must be noted that the Jewish exegetes deprived the word "Rahab" of its mythological character, and explained it as merely an equivalent for "arrogance," "noise," or "tumult"—applied both to the roaring of the sea and to the arrogant noisiness and proud boasting of the Egyptians (comp. Abraham ibn Ezra on Ps. lxxxvii. 4 and lxxxix. 9).

Bibliography:

Cheyne and Black, Encyc. Bibl.;

Smith, Dict. Bible;

Gunkel, Schöpfung und Chaos, pp. 30-40, Göttingen, 1895.

RAHAB (‘wide’).—1. The story of this woman, called a harlot, of Jericho is given in Jos 2:1-24. The two spies sent out by Joshua to view the Promised Land come first to the house of Rahab, in Jericho. The king hears of it, and bids Rahab bring them forth; but she asserts that they have left her house and that she does not know where they have gone; she had, however, previously hid them among stalks of flax upon the roof. After their pursuers have left, Rahab comes to them, professes her belief in Jahweh, and adjures them to spare her and her kinsfolk when the attack on Jericho is made; this they promise shall be done; and after arranging that a scarlet thread is to be hung from her window, in order to denote which house is to be spared when the sack of the city takes place, the two spies escape from her house by a rope (Jos 2:1-24). The promise is duly kept, and Joshua spares her when the city is burned (Jos 6:22-25). In Mat 1:5 Rahab is mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord.

2. A name for the Dragon, applied also to Egypt. This name is not the same as that just considered, which is written Rachab in Hebrew, while this is written Rahab. It is the name given to a mythological monster who is frequently referred to in the Bible. In Isa 30:7 the old myth that Jahweh in the beginning subdued Rahab (= Tĕhôm, the ‘Great Deep,’ the Bab. [Note: Babylonian.] Tiamat) is employed to show that Jahweh will in like manner subdue Egypt (cf. Psa 87:4), and that it is therefore vain for Judah to trust to it. The words in RV [Note: Revised Version.] , ‘Rahab that sitteth still,’ imply that Rahab had been subjugated, but not annihilated, i.e. it was believed that Rahab was still living somewhere in the depths of the sea; the final destruction is referred to in Rev 21:1 ‘And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more.’ The next reference to Rahab is in Isa 51:9-10, a very important passage, which shows distinctly that Rahab, the Dragon, the sea or the ‘Great Deep’ (Tĕhôm), are all names for one and the same monster. The belief is also expressly stated that in ‘the days of old’ there was a conflict between Jahweh and Rahab, and that the latter was overcome. Further references to the Rahab-myth are to be found in Psa 89:9-10, Job 9:13; Job 26:10-11; it is important to note how in all these passages the myth is treated as well known, it is taken for granted that the reference is perfectly understood. [See, further, Dragon, Leviathan, Sea.]

W. O. E. Oesterley.

rā´hab:

(1) (רחב, rāḥābh, “broad”; in Josephus, Ant., V, i, 2, 7, Ῥάχαβ, Rháchab; Heb 11:31 and Jas 2:25, Ῥάαβ, Rháab): A zōnāh, that is either a “harlot,” or, according to some, an “innkeeper” in Jericho; the Septuagint πόρνη, pórnē, “harlot”). The two spies sent by Joshua from Shittim came into her house and lodged there (Jos 2:1). She refused to betray them to the king of Jericho, and when he demanded them, she hid them on the roof of her house with stalks of flax that she had laid in order to dry. She pretended that they had escaped before the shutting of the gate, and threw their pursuers off their track. She then told the spies of the fear that the coming of the Israelites had caused in the minds of the Canaanites - “Our hearts did melt ... for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath” - and asked that the men promise to spare her father, mother, brothers and sisters, and all that they had. They promised her to spare them provided they would remain in her house and provided she would keep their business secret. Thereupon she let them down by a cord through the window, her house being built upon the town wall, and gave them directions to make good their escape (Josh 2:1-24). True to their promise, the Israelites under Joshua spared Rahab and her family (Jos 6:16 ff the King James Version); “And,” says the author of Josh, “she dwelleth in Israel even unto this day.” Her story appealed strongly to the imagination of the people of later times. Heb 11:31 speaks of her as having been saved by faith; James, on the other hand, in demonstrating that a man is justified by works and not by faith only, curiously chooses the same example (Jas 2:25). Jewish tradition has been kindly disposed toward Rahab; one hypothesis goes so far as to make her the wife of Joshua himself (Jewish Encyclopedia, under the word). Naturally then the other translation of zōnāh, deriving it from zūn, “to feed,” instead of zānāh, “to be a harlot,” has been preferred by some of the commentators.

(2) (Ῥάχαβ, Rháchab): Josephus, Ant., V, 1, 2, 7, so spells the name of (1) Septuagint and New Testament contra). The wife of Salmon and mother of Booz (Boaz) according to the genealogy in Mat 1:5. Query, whether there was a tradition identifying (1) and (2); see Lightfoot, Horae Heb on Mat 1:5.

(3) (רהב, rahabh, literally, “storm,” “arrogance”): A mythical sea-monster, probably referred to in several passages where the word is translated as a common noun “pride” (Job 9:13), “the proud” (Job 26:12; compare Psa 89:10). It is used in parallelism with tannin, “the dragon” (Isa 51:9). It is most familiar as an emblem of Egypt, ’the boaster that sitteth still’ (Isa 30:7; Psa 87:4; compare Psa 89:10). The Talmud in Bābhā’ Bathrā’ speaks of rahabh as sar ha-yām, “master of the sea.” See also ASTRONOMY.

(ῬáÜâ)

Rahab, the harlot (ðüñíç) of Jericho, is the heroine of the romantic story told in Joshua 2. At the risk of her life she sheltered two Hebrew spies and cunningly contrived their escape, receiving as her reward her own safety and that of her whole house. She is accorded a place in a great roll of the faithful (Heb_11:31), and her case is cited by James (2:25) in support of his thesis that one is not ‘saved’ by faith alone but by faith and works (cf. F. Weber, Jüd. Theol., ed. F. Delitzsch and G. Schnedermann, Leipzig, 1897, p. 332). These high estimates of her are doubtless based on an edifying speech (Jos_2:9-13), in which she acknowledges that Jahweh has given her land to Israel, and that He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.

The Jewish Rabbis and Christian Fathers alike took much interest in her story. Some of them softened the statement that she was a harlot, Josephus (Ant. V. i. 2), followed by Chrysostom, suggesting that she was merely an innkeeper; others, confessing her evil behaviour, represented her as seeking forgiveness from the God of Israel and pleading the merit of her good works (Mechilta, 64b). The allegorizing of her scarlet thread was begun by St. Clement of Rome, who calls her ‘the hospitable Rahab.’

‘Through faith and hospitality Rahab the harlot was saved.… And they [the spies] proceeded further to give her a sign, that she should hang from her house scarlet, making it manifest beforehand that through the blood of the Lord there should be redemption to all who believe and hope upon God. Behold, beloved, how there was not only faith, but prophecy in the woman’ (Ep. ad Cor. i. 12).

James Strahan.

(Matt 1)

- Listed in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 as one of the four female ancestors of Jesus, a Canaanite and a prostitute, she is also referred to in James 2. She lived in Jericho, and helped Joshua’s spies before the attack on the city in c 1,200BC (Joshua 2 and 6) at the start of his campaign to conquer "the promised land" of Canaan.

The name Rahab appears in English versions of the Bible as belonging to a woman who features in the book of Joshua, and to a mythical sea monster that features in the poetical books. But in the Hebrew Bible the two do not share the same name. There is a difference in spelling.

A woman in Jericho

Before Joshua opened his attack on Canaan, he sent two men to spy out the first city they would meet, Jericho. In Jericho the men met Rahab, a prostitute whose house was attached to the city wall. Rahab had heard sufficient of Israel’s God to fear his power, but she believed in his mercy to save her. She protected the spies from the local authorities, and in return asked protection for herself and her family when the Israelites attacked Jericho (Jos 2:1-14; Heb 11:31).

Rahab further demonstrated her faith by being obedient to the instructions that the spies gave her. She protected the spies as requested, and did as they had told her in preparation for Israel’s attack. As a result the Israelites preserved her and her family when Jericho fell, and accepted them into Israel as part of the nation (Jos 2:15-24; Jos 6:17; Jos 6:22-25; Jas 2:25). If this Rahab is the person of that name who married Salmon, she was mother of Boaz and an ancestor of Jesus the Messiah (Mat 1:1; Mat 1:5-6).

A mythical sea monster

Rahab the mythical sea monster was considered by people of the Middle East to symbolize the forces of chaos over which God had victory in creating an orderly world (Job 9:13; Job 26:12; Job 38:8-11). Poets at times wrote about God’s overthrow of Egypt in the Red Sea as if it were the overthrow of the sea monster Rahab (Psa 89:9-10; Isa 51:9-10). From this there developed the poetical usage of ‘Rahab’ as another name for Egypt (Psa 87:4; Isa 30:7).

A dragon or sea monster that

people thought controlled the sea. Rahab

is often a symbol for God’s enemies or for

anything evil.