The Promised Land · c. 1406 BC
Chapter 1
Rahab and the Spies
Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for Yahweh your God is with you wherever you go.”
For parents
Rahab, who hides the spies in Jericho, is a prostitute, and the story says so plainly (Joshua 2:1). She recalls how Israel completely destroyed the kings Sihon and Og (2:10). The spies pledge their own lives for hers, and warn that when Israel comes into the land, anyone who leaves her house and is killed has only himself to blame (2:14, 19). Earlier, the people tell Joshua that whoever rebels against his command is to be put to death (1:18).
, the servant of the , had died. Then the Lord spoke to the son of , Moses’ helper. “Moses my servant is dead,” he said. “So now get up and go across the River here, you and all these people, into the land I am giving the .
“I have given you every place the sole of your foot will step on, as I told Moses. Your border will reach from the wilderness and here all the way to the great river, the River . It will take in all the land of the and go on to the in the west, where the sun goes down.
“As long as you live, no man will be able to stand up to you. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I won’t fail you, and I won’t leave you.
“Be strong and courageous, because you will make these people the owners of the land. I swore to their ancestors that I would give it to them.
“Only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to keep all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Don’t turn away from it, to the right or to the left, so that you may succeed wherever you go.
“Keep talking about this book of the law. Think about it day and night, so you are careful to do everything written in it. Then things will go well for you, and you will succeed.
“Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Then Joshua gave orders to the officers of the people. “Go through the middle of the camp,” he said, “and give the people this order: ‘Get food ready, because within three days you are going to cross the Jordan here. You will go in and take the land the Lord your God is giving you, and it will be yours.’”
Joshua spoke to the , to the and to half the of . “Remember the order Moses the servant of the Lord gave you,” he said. “He told you, ‘The Lord your God is giving you rest, and will give you this land. Your wives, your little ones and your livestock are to stay in the land Moses gave you beyond the Jordan. But all your brave fighting men are to cross over armed, ahead of your brothers. You are to help them until the Lord has given your brothers rest, as he has given you, and until they too have taken the land the Lord your God is giving them. Then you are to go back to the land that is yours and take it for your own. It is the land Moses the servant of the Lord gave you beyond the Jordan, toward the sunrise.’”
“We will do everything you have commanded us,” they answered Joshua, “and we will go wherever you send us. We listened to Moses in everything, and we will listen to you the same way. May the Lord your God be with you, as he was with Moses. If anyone rebels against your command and doesn’t listen to your words, whatever you command him, he is to be put to death. Only be strong and courageous.”
Joshua the son of Nun sent two men out of in secret to spy. “Go and look over the land,” he told them, “and too.” They went, and came into the house of a whose name was . They stayed the night there.
The king of Jericho was told, “Look, some Israelite men came in here tonight to spy out the land.”
The king of Jericho sent Rahab a message: “Bring out the men who have come to you, the ones who went into your house. They have come to spy out all the land.”
The woman took the two men and hid them. Then she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I didn’t know where they came from. When it was dark, around the time for shutting the town gate, the men went out. I don’t know where they went. Hurry after them. You may catch up with them.”
But she had brought them up onto the roof and hidden them under the stalks of that she had spread out there.
The king’s men went after them on the road toward the fords of the Jordan, the shallow places where people could cross the river. As soon as the men chasing them had gone out, the gate was shut.
Before the two men lay down for the night, Rahab came up to them on the roof. “I know that the Lord has given you the land,” she said to them. “We are terrified of you, and all who live in the land are going weak with fear.
“We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the in front of you when you came out of . We have heard what you did to the two kings of the on the other side of the Jordan, and . You completely destroyed them.
“As soon as we heard it, our hearts melted with fear, and because of you no one had any courage left. The Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.
“I have been kind to you, so please swear to me by the Lord that you too will be kind to my father’s family. Give me a sign I can trust. Swear that you will spare my father and my mother, my brothers and my sisters and all they have, and that you will save our lives from death.”
The men said to her, “Our lives for yours, if you don’t tell anyone about this business of ours. When the Lord gives us the land, we will be kind to you and keep our word.”
Then she let the men down through the window on a rope, because her house was on the side of the town wall. She lived on the wall.
She said to them, “Go to the mountain, or the men chasing you may find you. Hide there three days, until they have gone back. Afterward, you may go your way.”
The men said to her, “We want to be clear of any blame over this oath you made us swear. Look, when we come into the land, tie this line of thread in the window you let us down through. Bring your father and your mother, your brothers and all your father’s family into the house with you.
“If anyone goes out through the doors of your house into the street and is killed, he has only himself to blame, and we will be clear of blame. But if anyone lays a hand on someone who is with you in the house, the blame for his death will be on us. And if you talk about this business of ours, then the oath you made us swear won’t hold us anymore.”
“Let it be as you have said,” she answered. She sent them away, and they left. Then she tied the scarlet line in the window.
They went to the mountain and stayed there three days, until the men chasing them had gone back. Those men searched for them all along the road, but didn’t find them.
Then the two men turned back. They came down from the mountain, crossed the river and came to Joshua the son of Nun. They told him all that had happened to them.
“The Lord has truly put the whole land into our hands,” they said to Joshua. “What’s more, everyone who lives in the land is going weak with fear of us.”