Rahab shelters the spies
Conquest & Judges · Draft · BSB
Content revision: a89ff4290ab117dd · No editorial review date recorded
Date: Before the Jordan crossing · Two spies sent from Shittim
Joshua sends two spies from Shittim to Jericho. Rahab hides them, speaks of the LORD’s deeds in Egypt and across the Jordan, and asks that her family be spared. The spies promise protection and return to Joshua.
Rahab’s confession refers to events already heard about, before the Jordan crossing. The scarlet cord identifies the house in the account; no surviving house or window has been established as hers.
Primary Scripture
2:1 Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two spies from Shittim, saying, “Go, inspect the land, especially Jericho.” So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab and stayed there.
2:2 And it was reported to the king of Jericho: “Behold, some men of Israel have come here tonight to spy out the land.”
2:3 So the king of Jericho sent to Rahab and said, “Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house, for they have come to spy out the whole land.”
2:4 But the woman had taken the two men and hidden them. So she said, “Yes, the men did come to me, but I did not know where they had come from.
2:5 At dusk, when the gate was about to close, the men went out, and I do not know which way they went. Pursue them quickly, and you may catch them!”
2:6 (But Rahab had taken them up to the roof and hidden them among the stalks of flax that she had laid out there.)
2:7 So the king’s men set out in pursuit of the spies along the road to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as they had gone out, the gate was shut.
2:8 Before the spies lay down for the night, Rahab went up on the roof
2:9 and said to them, “I know that the LORD has given you this land and that the fear of you has fallen on us, so that all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of you.
2:10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.
2:11 When we heard this, our hearts melted and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in the heavens above and on the earth below.
2:12 Now therefore, please swear to me by the LORD that you will indeed show kindness to my family, because I showed kindness to you. Give me a sure sign
2:13 that you will spare the lives of my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and that you will deliver us from death.”
2:14 “Our lives for your lives!” the men agreed. “If you do not report our mission, we will show you kindness and faithfulness when the LORD gives us the land.”
2:15 Then Rahab let them down by a rope through the window, since the house where she lived was built into the wall of the city.
2:16 “Go to the hill country,” she said, “so that your pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there for three days until they have returned; then go on your way.”
2:17 The men said to her, “We will not be bound by this oath you made us swear
2:18 unless, when we enter the land, you have tied this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you have brought your father and mother and brothers and all your family into your house.
2:19 If anyone goes out the door of your house into the street, his blood will be on his own head, and we will be innocent. But if a hand is laid on anyone with you in the house, his blood will be on our heads.
2:20 And if you report our mission, we will be released from the oath you made us swear.”
2:21 “Let it be as you say,” she replied, and she sent them away. And when they had gone, she tied the scarlet cord in the window.
2:22 So the spies went out into the hill country and stayed there three days, until their pursuers had returned without finding them, having searched all along the road.
2:23 Then the two men started back, came down from the hill country, and crossed the river. So they came to Joshua son of Nun and reported all that had happened to them.
2:24 “The LORD has surely delivered the entire land into our hands,” they said to Joshua. “Indeed, all who dwell in the land are melting in fear of us.”
Related Scripture
Hebrews remembers Rahab’s welcome as an act of faith.
James points to her protection of the messengers as faith expressed in action.
Location evidence
Tell es-Sultan marks ancient Jericho. The marker does not locate Rahab’s house or the spies’ hiding place in the hills.
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.444564, 31.871719]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jericho: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.444564, 31.871719]. Classification source: editorial.
OpenBible · site identifications
OpenBible · site identifications
For the class
What has Rahab heard, and how does that shape her response?
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: editorial (content/authored/conquest-judges.json)
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Teaching stops, summaries and regional extents are original editorial content of this atlas.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm