Joshua
2
- Then Joshua son of Nun secretly sent two
spies from Shittim. "Go, look over the land," he said, "especially
Jericho." So they went and entered the house of a prostitute named Rahab
and stayed there.
- The king of Jericho was told, "Look!
Some of the Israelites have come here tonight to spy out the land."
- So the king of Jericho sent this message
to Rahab: "Bring out the men who came to you and entered your house,
because they have come to spy out the whole land."
- But the woman had taken the two men and
hidden them. She said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where
they had come from.
- At dusk, when it was time to close the city
gate, the men left. I don't know which way they went. Go after them quickly.
You may catch up with them."
- (But she had taken them up to the roof and
hidden them under the stalks of flax she had laid out on the roof.)
- So the men set out in pursuit of the spies
on the road that leads to the fords of the Jordan, and as soon as the pursuers
had gone out, the gate was shut.
- Before the spies lay down for the night,
she went up on the roof
- and said to them, "I know that the
LORD has given this land to you and that a great fear of you has fallen on
us, so that all who live in this country are melting in fear because of you.
- We have heard how the LORD dried up the
water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did
to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites east of the Jordan, whom you
completely destroyed.
- When we heard of it, our hearts melted and
everyone's courage failed because of you, for the LORD your God is God in
heaven above and on the earth below.
- Now then, please swear to me by the LORD
that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to
you. Give me a sure sign
- 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 save us from death."
- "Our lives for your lives!" the
men assured her. "If you don't tell what we are doing, we will treat
you kindly and faithfully when the LORD gives us the land."
- So she let them down by a rope through the
window, for the house she lived in was part of the city wall.
- Now she had said to them, "Go to the
hills so the pursuers will not find you. Hide yourselves there three days
until they return, and then go on your way."
- The men said to her, "This oath you
made us swear will not be binding on us
- 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, your brothers and all your family
into your house.
- If anyone goes outside your house into the
street, his blood will be on his own head; we will not be responsible. As
for anyone who is in the house with you, his blood will be on our head if
a hand is laid on him.
- But if you tell what we are doing, we will
be released from the oath you made us swear."
- "Agreed," she replied. "Let
it be as you say." So she sent them away and they departed. And she tied
the scarlet cord in the window.
- When they left, they went into the hills
and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had searched all along the
road and returned without finding them.
- Then the two men started back. They went
down out of the hills, forded the river and came to Joshua son of Nun and
told him everything that had happened to them.
- They said to Joshua, "The LORD has
surely given the whole land into our hands; all the people are melting in
fear because of us."
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