Joshua 2 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
Around 1400 BC or 1250 BC depending on the dating scheme, in the days immediately before the crossing of the Jordan
Location
Jericho, a walled oasis city in the Jordan valley near the river, and the hill country to the west where the spies hid
Audience
Israelites reading their own founding story, including later readers who needed to understand how an outsider became part of the nation
Situation
Joshua sends two spies into Jericho, where Rahab the prostitute hides them under flax stalks on her roof and misdirects the king's men. She bargains for the safety of her family, and the spies agree, marking her house with a scarlet cord.
Key Background
An inn or a prostitute's house was a natural place for strangers to lodge without drawing attention, since travellers came and went there and nobody asked for family credentials. Rahab's house was built into the city wall, an ordinary arrangement in crowded fortified towns, which is what allows the escape by rope through a window. Flax was harvested in spring and laid on flat roofs to dry, a detail that quietly fits the Passover season timing of the crossing, and Rahab's speech quoting the Red Sea events shows how far news of Israel had travelled through trade routes.
Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two men from as He told them, "Go look over the land — especially Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a woman named who for a and they stayed there.
Someone told the king of Jericho, "Some Israelite men came here tonight to scout out the land."
So the king of Jericho sent word to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house. They're here to scout out the whole land."
But the woman had already hidden the two men. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I didn't know where they were from."
"When it was time to the at dark, the men left. I don't know which direction they went. Go after them quickly — you can still catch them!"
But she had actually brought them up to the roof and hidden them under of she had spread out there.
The king's men chased after them toward the Jordan River crossings, and as soon as the pursuers left, the city gate was shut behind them.
Before the scouts had gone to sleep, Rahab went up to them on the roof.
She told them, "I know that has given you this land, and that everyone here is terrified of you. All the people living in this land are with because of you."
"We've heard how Yahweh dried up the waters of the in front of you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan — Sihon and Og — whom you
"When we heard about it, and no had because of you. Yahweh your God — he is God in the heavens above and on the earth below."
"Now then, please swear to me by Yahweh — since I've shown you — that you'll also show to my father's family. Give me a
"Spare my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and everyone who belongs to them. us from
The men told her, for — even to the point of death! If you don't give away what we're doing here, we'll treat you with and when Yahweh gives us this land."
Then she lowered them down by a rope through the window, because her house was built into the itself — she lived right in the
She told them, "Head for the hill country so the pursuers won't find you. Hide there for three days until they come back, and then go on your way."
The men said to her, "We'll be released from this you made us swear — "
" — unless, when we invade the land, you tie this in the window you used to lower us down, and you bring your father and mother, your brothers, and your father's whole family into your house."
"Anyone who goes outside the doors of your house into the street — their will be on their own and we'll be innocent. But anyone who stays inside the house with you — if anyone lays a hand on them, their will be on our
"But if you tell anyone what we're doing, then we're released from the oath you made us swear."
She agreed: "Let it be exactly as you've said." Then she sent them on their way, and after they left, she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
They headed for the hill country and stayed there three days until the pursuers came back. The pursuers had searched the whole road but found nothing.
Then the two men came back down from the hill country, crossed the river, and went to Joshua son of Nun. They told him everything that had happened to them.
They told Joshua, has the entire land over to us. Everyone living there is with because of us."