Joshua the son of Nun secretly sent two men out of Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, including Jericho.” They went and came into the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and slept there.
The king of Jericho was told, “Behold, men of the children of Israel came in here tonight to spy out the land.”
Jericho’s king sent to Rahab, saying, “Bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered into your house; for 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. About the time of the shutting of the gate, when it was dark, the men went out. Where the men went, I don’t know. Pursue them quickly. You may catch up with them.” But she had brought them up to the roof, and hidden them under the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. The men pursued them along the way to the fords of the Jordan River. As soon as those who pursued them had gone out, they shut the gate. Before they had lain down, she came up to them on the roof. She said to the men, “I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how Yahweh dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, when you came out of Egypt; and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and to Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath. Now therefore, please swear to me by Yahweh, since I have dealt kindly with you, that you also will deal kindly with my father’s house, and give me a true sign; and that you will save alive my father, my mother, my brothers, and my sisters, and all that they have, and will deliver our lives from death.”
The men said to her, “Our life for yours, if you don’t talk about this business of ours; and it shall be, when Yahweh gives us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with you.”
Then she let them down by a cord through the window; for her house was on the side of the wall, and she lived on the wall. She said to them, “Go to the mountain, lest the pursuers find you. Hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers have returned. Afterward, you may go your way.”
The men said to her, “We will be guiltless of this your oath which you’ve made us to swear. Behold, when we come into the land, tie this line of scarlet thread in the window which you used to let us down. Gather to yourself into the house your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household. It shall be that whoever goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood will be on his head, and we will be guiltless. Whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand is on him. But if you talk about this business of ours, then we shall be guiltless of your oath which you’ve made us to swear.”
She said, “Let it be as you have said.” She sent them away, and they departed. Then she tied the scarlet line in the window.
They went and came to the mountain, and stayed there three days, until the pursuers had returned. The pursuers sought them all along the way, but didn’t find them. Then the two men returned, descended from the mountain, crossed the river, and came to Joshua the son of Nun. They told him all that had happened to them. They said to Joshua, “Truly Yahweh has delivered all the land into our hands. Moreover, all the inhabitants of the land melt away before us.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14, 24 1. And Joshua the son of Nun sent, etc.…
1. And Joshua the son of Nun sent, etc. The object of the exploration now in question was different from the former one, when Joshua was sent with other eleven to survey all the districts of the land, and bring back information to the whole people concerning its position, nature, fertility, and other properties, the magnitude and number of the cities, the inhabitants, and their manners. The present object was to dispose those who might be inclined to be sluggish, to engage with more alacrity in the campaign. And though it appears from the first chapter of Deuteronomy, (Deuteronomy 1:22,) that Moses, at the request of the people, sent chosen men to spy out the land, he elsewhere relates (Numbers 13:4) that he did it by command from God. Those twelve, therefore, set out divinely commissioned, and for a somewhat different purpose, viz., to make a thorough survey of the land, and be the heralds of its excellence to stir up the courage of the people.
Now Joshua secretly sends two persons to ascertain whether or not a free passage may be had over the Jordan, whether the citizens of Jericho were indulging in security, or whether they were alert and prepared to resist. In short, he sends spies on whose report he may provide against all dangers. Wherefore a twofold question may be here raised — Are we to approve of his prudence? or are we to condemn him for excessive anxiety, especially as he seems to have trusted more than was right to his own prudence, when, without consulting God, he was so careful in taking precautions against danger? But, inasmuch as it is not expressly said that he received a message from heaven to order the people to collect their vessels and to publish his proclamation concerning the passage of the Jordan, although it is perfectly obvious that he never would have thought of moving the camp unless God had ordered it, it is also probable that in sending the spies he consulted God as to his pleasure in the matter, or that God himself, knowing how much need there was of this additional confirmation, had spontaneously suggested it to the mind of his servant. Be this as it may, while Joshua commands his messengers to spy out Jericho, he is preparing to besiege it, and accordingly is desirous to ascertain in what direction it may be most easily and safely approached.
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They came into a harlot’s house, etc. Why some try to avoid the name harlot, and interpret זונה as meaning one who keeps an inn, I see not, unless it be that they think it disgraceful to be the guests of a courtesan, or wish to wipe off a stigma from a woman who not only received the messengers kindly, but secured their safety by singular courage and prudence. It is indeed a regular practice with the Rabbins, when they would consult for the honor of their nation, presumptuously to wrest Scripture and give a different turn by their fictions to anything that seems not quite reputable. But the probability is, that while the messengers were courting secrecy, and shunning observation and all places of public intercourse, they came to a woman who dwelt in a retired spot. Her house was contiguous to the wall of the city, nay, its outer side was actually situated in the wall. From this we may infer that it was some obscure corner remote from the public thoroughfare; just as persons of her description usually live in narrow lanes and secret places. It cannot be supposed with any consistency to have been a common inn which was open to all indiscriminately, because they could not have felt at liberty to indulge in familiar intercourse, and it must have been difficult in such circumstances to obtain concealment.
My conclusion therefore is, that they obtained admission privily, and immediately betook themselves to a hiding-place. Moreover, in the fact that a woman who had gained a shameful livelihood by prostitution was shortly after admitted into the body of the chosen people, and became a member of the Church, we are furnished with a striking display of divine grace which could thus penetrate into a place of shame, and draw forth from it not only Rahab, but her father and the other members of her family. Most assuredly while the term זונה, almost invariably means harlot, there is nothing here to oblige us to depart from the received meaning.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23 Or, taverner’s house, or hostess.
Or, taverner’s house, or hostess.
Which place was in the plain of Moab near unto Jordan.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–18 Jos 2:1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent…
Jos 2:1 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged there.
Ver. 1. And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim.] Where the people then encamped, {Num 33:49} and where the Midianites sometime, by the counsel of Balaam, Satan’s spell man, outwitted the Israelites by setting fair women before them, who soon drew them into those two sister sins, idolatry and adultery. {Num 25:1-2; Num 25:18}
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Two men.] Not twelve, as Num 13:2-3, for those were too many by ten; and did much harm among the people.
To spy secretly.] Heb., Silently. Silence is oft no small virtue; and he is a rare man who can both keep and give counsel.
Go view the land.] Of which though God had promised to possess them, yet Joshua knew that means was to be used. So 2Sa 5:24. David had a promise of victory over the Philistines; but yet so as that he must fetch a compass behind them; and when he heard "the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberries," then he was to bestir himself.
Into a harlot’s house.] Or, Hostess, as some render it; but such as stuck not familiarly to entertain strangers. {Heb 11:31 Jas 2:25} Upon her conversion she was advanced to become grandmother to Jesus Christ; who by his purity washeth off all our spots; like as the sun washeth and wipeth away all the ill vapours of the earth and air.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 Sent; or, had sent, as that tense is oft…
Sent; or, had sent, as that tense is oft used. See Poole "Jos 1:11".
Shittim; called also Abel-shittim, Num 33:49.
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Two men; not twelve, as Moses did, partly because the people of Canaan were now more alarmed than in Moses’s time, and more suspicious of all strangers; and partly because those were to view the whole land, these but a small parcel of it.
To spy, i.e. to learn the state of the land and people, and what way and method they should proceed in. It is evident enough that Joshmi did not this out of distrust, as the people did, Deu 1; and it is most probable he had God’s command and direction in it, for the encouragement of himself and his army in their present enterprise.
Secretly; with reference not to his enemies, which being the constant and necessary practice of all spies, was needless to be mentioned; but to the Israelites, without their knowledge or desire. And this seems added by way of opposition unto the like action, Deu 1, where it was done with the people’s privity, and upon their motion; and therefore an account was given, not only to Moses, but also to the congregation; whereas here it was given to Joshua only, Jos 2:23, which was a good caution to prevent the inconveniency which possibly might have arisen, if their report had been doubtful or discouraging.
The land, even Jericho, i.e. the land about Jericho, together with the city. Heb. the land and Jericho, i.e. especially Jericho. So and is used 2Sa 2:30; 1Ki 11:1; Psa 18:1. They obeyed Joshua’s command, even with the hazard of their own lives, considering that they were under the protection of Divine Providence, which could very easily many ways secure them; or being willing to sacrifice their lives in their country’s service.
An harlot’s house; so the Hebrew word is used, Jdg 11:1; 16:1; 1Ki 3:16; Eze 23:44; and so it is rendered by two apostles, Heb 11:31; Jam 2:25; such she either now was, or formerly had been; and such a person’s house they might come to with less observation than to an hostess, as some render it, or to a public victualling-house. And such a course of life was very common among the Gentiles, who esteemed fornication to be either no sin, or a very small and trivial one.
Lodged there, or, lay down, as the same word, is rendered, Jos 2:8, intended and composed themselves to rest; but they were disturbed and hindered from their intentions upon the following discovery.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 22 In these verses we have,
In these verses we have,
I. The prudence of Joshua, in sending spies to observe this important pass, which was likely to be disputed at the entrance of Israel into Canaan (v. 1). Go view the land, even Jericho. Moses had sent spies (Num. 13) Joshua himself was one of them and it proved of ill consequence. Yet Joshua now sent spies, not, as the former were sent, to survey the whole land, but Jericho only; not to bring the account to the whole congregation, but to Joshua only, who, like a watchful general, was continually projecting for the public good, and, was particularly careful to take the first step well and not to stumble at the threshold. It was not fit that Joshua should venture over Jordan, to make his remarks incognito - in disguise; but he sends two men (two young men, says the Septuagint), to view the land, that from their report he might take his measures in attacking Jericho. Observe, 1. There is no remedy, but great men must see with other people's eyes, which makes it very necessary that they be cautious in the choice of those they employ, since so much often depends upon their fidelity. 2. Faith in God's promise ought not to supersede but encourage our diligence in the use of proper means. Joshua is sure he has God with him, and yet sends men before him. We do not trust God, but tempt him, if our expectations slacken our endeavours. 3. See how ready these men were to go upon this hazardous enterprise. Though they put their lives in their hands yet they ventured in obedience to Joshua their general, in zeal for the service of the camp, and in dependence upon the power of that God who, being the keeper of Israel in general, is the protector of every particular Israelite in the way of his duty.
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II. The providence of God directing the spies to the house of Rahab. How they got over Jordan we are not told; but into Jericho they came, which was about seven or eight miles from the river, and there seeking for a convenient inn were directed to the house of Rahab, here called a harlot, a woman that had formerly been of ill fame, the reproach of which stuck to her name, though of late she had repented and reformed. Simon the leper (Mat 26:6), though cleansed from his leprosy, wore the reproach of it in his name at long as he lived; so Rahab the harlot; and she is so called in the New Testament, where both her faith and her good works are praised, to teach us, 1. That the greatness of sin is no bar to pardoning mercy if it be truly repented of in time. We read of publicans and harlots entering into the kingdom of the Messiah, and being welcomed to all the privileged of that kingdom, Mat 21:31. 2. That there are many who before their conversion were very wicked and vile, and yet afterwards come to great eminence in faith and holiness. 3. Even those that through grace have repented of the sins of their youth must expect to bear the reproach of them, and when they hear of their old faults must renew their repentance, and, as an evidence of that, hear of them patiently. God's Israel, for aught that appears, had but one friend, but one well-wisher in all Jericho, and that was Rahab a harlot. God has often served his own purposes and his church's interests by men of different morals. Had these scouts gone to any other house than this they would certainly have been betrayed and put to death without mercy. But God knew where they had a friend that would be true to them, though they did not, and directed them thither. Thus that which seems to us most contingent and accidental is often over-ruled by the divine providence to serve its great ends. And those that faithfully acknowledge God in their ways he will guide with his eye. See Jer 36:19, Jer 36:26.
III. The piety of Rahab in receiving and protecting these Israelites. Those that keep public-houses entertain all comers, and think themselves obliged to be civil to their guests. But Rahab showed her guests more than common civility, and went upon an uncommon principle in what she did; it was by faith that she received those with peace against whom her king and country had denounced war, Heb 11:31. 1. She bade them welcome to her house; they lodged there, though it appears by what she said to them (Jos 2:9) she knew both whence they came and what their business was. 2. Perceiving that they were observed coming into the city, and that umbrage was taken at it, she hid them upon the roof of the house, which was flat, and covered them with stalks of flax (Jos 2:6), so that, if the officers should come thither to search for them, there they might lie undiscovered. By these stalks of flax, which she herself had lain in order upon the roof to dry in the sun, in order to the beating of it and making it ready for the wheel, it appears she had one of the good characters of the virtuous woman, however in others of them she might be deficient, that she sought wool and flax, and wrought willingly with her hands, Pro 31:13. From this instance of her honest industry one would hope that, whatever she had been formerly, she was not now a harlot. 3. When she was examined concerning them, she denied they were in her house, turned off the officers that had a warrant to search for them with a sham, and so secured them. No marvel that the king of Jericho sent to enquire after them (Jos 2:2, Jos 2:3); he had cause to fear when the enemy was at his door, and his fear made him suspicious and jealous of all strangers. He had reason to demand from Rahab that she should bring forth the men to be dealt with as spies; but Rahab not only disowned that she knew them, or knew where they were, but, that no further search might be made for them in the city, told the pursuers they had gone away again and in all probability might be overtaken, Jos 2:4, Jos 2:5. Now, (1.) We are sure this was a good work: it is canonized by the apostle (Jam 2:25), where she is said to be justified by works, and this is specified, that she received the messengers, and sent them out another way, and she did it by faith, such a faith as set her above the fear of man, even of the wrath of the king. She believed, upon the report she had heard of the wonders wrought for Israel, that their God was the only true God, and that therefore their declared design upon Canaan would undoubtedly take effect and in this faith she sided with them, protected them, and courted their favour. Had she said, "I believe God is yours and Canaan yours, but I dare not show you any kindness," her faith had been dead and inactive, and would not have justified her. But by this it appeared to be both alive and lively, that she exposed herself to the utmost peril, even of life, in obedience to her faith. Note, Those only are true believers that can find in their hearts to venture for God; and those that by faith take the Lord for their God take his people for their people, and cast in their lot among them. Those that have God for their refuge and hiding-place must testify their gratitude by their readiness to shelter his people when there is occasion. Let my outcasts dwell with thee, Isa 16:3, Isa 16:4. And we must be glad of an opportunity of testifying the sincerity and zeal of our love to God by hazardous services to his church and kingdom among men. But, (2.) There is that in it which it is not easy to justify, and yet it must be justified, or else it could not be so good a work as to justify her. [1.] It is plain that she betrayed her country by harbouring the enemies of it, and aiding those that were designing its destruction, which could not consist with her allegiance to her prince and her affection and duty to the community she was a member of. But that which justifies her in this is that she knew the Lord had given Israel this land (Jos 2:9), knew it by the incontestable miracles God had wrought for them, which confirmed that grant; and her obligations to God were higher than her obligations to any other. If she knew God had given them this land, it would have been a sin to join with those that hindered them from possessing it. But, since no such grant of any land to any people can now be proved, this will by no means justify any such treacherous practices against the public welfare. [2.] It is plain that she deceived the officers that examined her with an untruth - That she knew not whence the men were, that they had gone out, that she knew not whither they had gone. What shall we say to this? If she had either told the truth or been silent, she would have betrayed the spies, and this would certainly have been a great sin; and it does not appear that she had any other way of concealing them that by this ironical direction to the officers to pursue them another way, which if they would suffer themselves to be deceived by, let them be deceived. None are bound to accuse themselves, or their friends, of that which, though enquired after as a crime, they know to be a virtue. This case was altogether extraordinary, and therefore cannot be drawn into a precedent; and that my be justified here which would be by no means lawful in a common case. Rahab knew, by what was already done on the other side Jordan, that no mercy was to be shown to the Canaanites, and thence inferred that, if mercy was not owing them, truth was not; those that might be destroyed might be deceived. Yet divines generally conceive that it was a sin, which however admitted of this extenuation, that being a Canaanite she was not better taught the evil of lying; but God accepted her faith and pardoned her infirmity. However it was in this case, we are sure it is our duty to speak every man the truth to his neighbour, to dread and detest lying, and never to do evil, that evil, that good may come of it, Rom 3:8. But God accepts what is sincerely and honestly intended, though there be a mixture of frailty and folly in it, and is not extreme to mark what we do amiss. Some suggest that what she said might possibly be true of some other men.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–24 And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of…
And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men,.... Or "had sent" (p); for this was done before the above order to depart: it is a tradition of the Jews (q), that they were Caleb and Phinehas; but they were not young men, as in Jos 6:23; especially the former; nor is it probable that men of such rank and figure should be sent, but rather meaner persons; yet such as were men of good sense and abilities, and capable of conducting such an affair they were sent about, as well as men of probity and faithfulness; two good men, Kimchi says they were, and not as they that went on the mission of Moses; these were sent from Shittim, the same with Abelshittim, in the plains of Moab, where Israel now lay encamped, Num 33:49, which Josephus (r) calls Abila, and says it was sixty furlongs, or seven miles and better, from Jordan:
to spy secretly; or "silently" (s); not so much with respect to the inhabitants of the land, for it is supposed in all spies, that they do their business in the most private and secret manner, so as not to be discovered by the inhabitants, whose land they are sent to spy; but with respect to the children of Israel, that they might know nothing of it, lest they should be discouraged, thinking that Joshua was in some fear of the Canaanites, and under some distrust of the promise of God to give the land to them: the word for "smiths", and also for persons deaf and dumb, coming from the same root, have furnished the Jewish writers with various conceits, as that these spies went in the habit of smiths with the instruments of their business in their hands; or acted as deaf and dumb persons, and so as incapable of giving an account of themselves, or of answering to any questions put to them, should they be taken up and examined; their commentators in general take notice of this:
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saying, go view the land, even Jericho; especially Jericho, so Noldius (t); the land in general, and Jericho in particular, because it was a great city, as Kimchi notes; of this city; see Gill on Luk 19:4. Whether it had its name from the sweetsmelling balsam which grew in plenty about it, or from the form of it, being that of an half moon, is not certain, Strabo (u) says of it, that here was a paradise of balsam, an aromatic, and that it was surrounded with hills in a plain, which bent to it like an amphitheatre. They were not sent to spy the land, as the spies in the times of Moses, to see what sort of land it was, and what sort of people dwelt in it; but to reconnoitre it, to know where it was best to lead the people at first, and encamp; and particularly to observe the passes and avenues leading to Jericho, the first city in it, nearest to them, of importance. Ben Gersom thinks it was to spy or pick out the thoughts of the inhabitants of the land, what apprehensions they had of the people of Israel, whether disheartened and dispirited at their near approach, and what were their intentions, resolutions, and preparations to act against them, offensively, or defensively; and which seems not amiss, since this was the chief information they got, and which they reported to Joshua upon their return; though Abarbinel objects to it as a thing impossible:
and they went, and came into a harlot's house, named Rahab; they went from Shittim, and crossed the river Jordan, by swimming or fording, and came to Jericho; which, as Josephus (w) says, was fifty furlongs, or seven miles and a half, from Jordan; and they went into a harlot's house, not purposely for that reason, because it was such an one, but so it proved eventually; though the Targum of Jonathan says it was the house of a woman, an innkeeper or victualler; for Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, interpret the word it uses of a seller of food (x); and if so, it furnishes out a reason why they turned in thither, where they might expect to have food and lodging; though the Jews commonly take her to be a harlot; and generally speaking, in those times and countries, such as kept public houses were prostitutes; and there are some circumstances which seem to confirm this in the context; and so the Greek version calls her, and is the character given of her in the New Testament: her name was Rahab, of whom the Jews have this tradition (y), that she was ten years of age when Israel came out of Egypt; that she played the harlot the forty years they were in the wilderness, became the wife of Joshua, who had daughters by her, from whom came eight prophets, Jeremiah, Hilkiah, Maasia, Hanameel, Shallum, Baruch, the son of Neriah, Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, and some say Huldah the prophetess; but the truth is, she married Salmon, a prince of the tribe of Judah; see Gill on Mat 1:5,
and lodged there; that is, they went thither in order to lodge.
(p) "miserat", Vatablus, Masius, Drusius. (q) Shalshalet Hakabala, fol. 7. 2. (r) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 8. sect. 2. (s) "silentio", Montanus, Munster; so Kimchi and Ben Melech. (t) P. 277. (u) Geograph. l. 16. p. 525. (w) Ut supra, sect. 4. (r)) (x) And so R. Sol. Urbin. Obel Moed, fol. 24. 1. (y) Shalshalet Hakabala, ut supra. (q))
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 Joshua sends spies to Jericho, ver. 1. Rahab receives…
Joshua sends spies to Jericho, ver. 1. Rahab receives and conceals them, ver. 2-7. Her agreement with them for the safety of herself and family, ver. 8-21. The return of the spies, and the account given by them, ver. 22-24.
Sent - Or, had sent. Two men - Not twelve, as Moses did, because those were to view the whole land, these but a small parcel of it. To spy - That is, to learn the state of the land and people. It is evident Joshua did not this out of distrust; it is probable, he had God's command and direction in it for the encouragement of himself and his army. Secretly - With reference not to his enemies, that being the practice of all spies, but to the Israelites; a good caution to prevent the inconveniency which possibly might have arisen, if their report had been discouraging. Jericho - That is, the land about Jericho, together with the city. Hebrew. The land and Jericho, that is, especially Jericho. Harlot's - So the Hebrew word is used, Judg. xi, 1, and so it is rendered by two apostles, Heb. xi, 31 James ii, 25, such she either now was, or rather, had been formerly. Lodged - Or, lay down; as the same word is rendered, ver. 8, composed themselves to rest; but they were hindered from that intention.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20, 23, 24 Joshua sends out two spies to examine the state…
CHAPTER II
Joshua sends out two spies to examine the state of the
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inhabitants of the land, particularly those of Jericho, who
are entertained at the house of Rahab, 1.
The king of Jericho is informed of their being in the town, and
sends to Rahab, commanding her to deliver them up, 2, 3.
She hides the spies, and tells the messengers that the men were
departed and gone towards the mountain, 4, 5.
When the officers of the king of Jericho were departed, she took
the spies to the house-top, and covered them with flax, 6, 7.
She relates to them that the fear of the Israelites had fallen
on all the inhabitants of the country on hearing of their
victories over the Amorites; that she knew none could resist
the God of Israel, and therefore desired them to give her an
oath that, when they took Jericho, they would preserve the
lives of her and her family, 8-13.
The spies swear to her, 14.
She lets them down by a cord from the house-top, and gives them
directions how to proceed, in order to avoid the pursuers,
15, 16.
She is to tie a scarlet line to the window, through which she
had let them down, which should be the sign to the Israelites
to spare that house and its inhabitants, 17-19.
Having bound her to secresy, they depart, 20, 21.
After three days' stay in the mountain, they return to Joshua,
and make a favourable report, 22-24.
NOTES ON CHAP. II
Verse 1. Joshua - sent - two men to spy secretly] It is very likely that these spies had been sent out soon after the death of Moses, and therefore our marginal reading, had sent, is to be preferred. Secretly - It is very probable also that these were confidential persons, and that the transaction was between them and him alone. As they were to pass over the Jordan opposite to Jericho, it was necessary that they should have possession of this city, that in case of any reverses they might have no enemies in their rear. He sent the men, therefore, to see the state of the city, avenues of approach, fortifications, c., that he might the better concert his mode of attack.
A harlot's house] Harlots and inn-keepers seem to have been called by the same name, as no doubt many who followed this mode of life, from their exposed situation, were not the most correct in their morals. Among the ancients women generally kept houses of entertainment, and among the Egyptians and Greeks this was common. I shall subjoin a few proofs. HERODOTUS, speaking concerning the many differences between Egypt and other countries, and the peculiarity of their laws and customs, expressly says: Εν τοισι αἱ μεν γυναικες αγοραζουσι και καπηλευουσι· οἱ δε ανδρες, κατ' οικους εοντες, ὑφαινουσι. "Among the Egyptians the women carry on all commercial concerns, and keep taverns, while the men continue at home and weave." Herod. in Euterp., c. xxxv. DIODORUS SICULUS, lib. i., s. 8, and c. xxvii., asserts that "the men were the slaves of the women in Egypt, and that it is stipulated in the marriage contract that the woman shall be the ruler of her husband, and that he shall obey her in all things." The same historian supposes that women had these high privileges among the Egyptians, to perpetuate the memory of the beneficent administration of Isis, who was afterwards deified among them.
NYMPHODORUS, quoted by the ancient scholiast on the OEdipus Coloneus of Sophocles, accounts for these customs: he says that "Sesostris, finding the population of Egypt rapidly increasing, fearing that he should not be able to govern the people or keep them united under one head, obliged the men to assume the occupations of women, in order that they might be rendered effeminate."
Sophocles confirms the account given by Herodotus speaking of Egypt he says: -
Εκει γαρ οἱ μεν αρσενες κατα στεγας
Θακουσιν ἱστουργουντες αἱ δε ξυννομοι
Τα' ξω βιου τροφεια προσυνους' αει.
OEdip. Col. v. 352.
"There the men stay in their houses weaving cloth, while the women transact all business out of doors, provide food for the family," c. It is on this passage that the scholiast cites Nymphodorus for the information given above, and which he says is found in the 13th chapter of his work "On the Customs of Barbarous Nations."
That the same custom prevailed among the Greeks we have the following proof from APULEIUS: Ego vero quod primate ingressui stabulum conspicatus sum, accessi, et de QUADAM ANU CAUPONA illico percontor. - Aletam. lib. i., p. 18, Edit. Bip. "Having entered into the first inn I met with, and there seeing a certain OLD WOMAN, the INN-KEEPER, I inquired of her."
It is very likely that women kept the places of public entertainment among the Philistines and that it was with such a one, and not with a harlot, that Samson lodged; (see Jdg 16:1, c.) for as this custom certainly did prevail among the Egyptians, of which we have the fullest proof above, we may naturally expect it to have prevailed also among the Canaanites and Philistines, as we find from Apuleius that it did afterwards among the Greeks. Besides there is more than presumptive proof that this custom obtained among the Israelites themselves, even in the most polished period of their history; for it is much more reasonable to suppose that the two women, who came to Solomon for judgment, relative to the dead child, (1Kg 3:16, c.), were inn-keepers, than that they were harlots. It is well known that common prostitutes, from their abandoned course of life, scarcely ever have children and the laws were so strict against such in Israel, (De 23:18), that if these had been of that class it is not at all likely they would have dared to appear before Solomon. All these circumstances considered, I am fully satisfied that the term זונה zonah in the text, which we translate harlot, should be rendered tavern or inn-keeper, or hostess. The spies who were sent out on this occasion were undoubtedly the most confidential persons that Joshua had in his host; they went on an errand of the most weighty importance, and which involved the greatest consequences. The risk they ran of losing their lives in this enterprise was extreme. Is it therefore likely that persons who could not escape apprehension and death, without the miraculous interference of God, should in despite of that law which at this time must have been so well known unto them, go into a place where they might expect, not the blessing, but the curse, of God? Is it not therefore more likely that they went rather to an inn to lodge than to a brothel? But what completes in my judgment the evidence on this point is, that this very Rahab, whom we call a harlot, was actually married to Salmon, a Jewish prince, see Mt 1:5. And is it probable that a prince of Judah would have taken to wife such a person as our text represents Rahab to be?
It is granted that the Septuagint, who are followed by Heb 11:31, and Jas 2:25, translate the Hebrew זונה zonah by πορνη, which generally signifies a prostitute; but it is not absolutely evident that the Septuagint used the word in this sense. Every scholar knows that the Greek word πορνη comes from περναω, to sell, as this does from περαω, to pass from one to another; transire facio a me ad alterum; DAMM. But may not this be spoken as well of the woman's goods as of her person? In this sense the Chaldee Targum understood the term, and has therefore translated it אתתא פונדקיתא ittetha pundekitha, a woman, a TAVERN-KEEPER. That this is the true sense many eminent men are of opinion; and the preceding arguments render it at least very probable. To all this may be added, that as our blessed Lord came through the line of this woman, it cannot be a matter of little consequence to know what moral character she sustained; as an inn-keeper she might be respectable, if not honourable; as a public prostitute she could be neither; and it is not very likely that the providence of God would have suffered a person of such a notoriously bad character to enter into the sacred line of his genealogy. It is true that the cases of Tamar and Bathsheba may be thought sufficient to destroy this argument; but whoever considers these two cases maturely will see that they differ totally from that of Rahab, if we allow the word harlot to be legitimate. As to the objection that her husband is nowhere mentioned in the account here given; it appears to me to have little weight. She might have been either a single woman or a widow; and in either of these cases there could have been no mention of a husband; or if she even had a husband it is not likely he would have been mentioned on this occasion, as the secret seems to have been kept religiously between her and the spies. If she were a married woman her husband might be included in the general terms, all that she had, and all her kindred, Jos 6:23. But it is most likely that she was a single woman or a widow, who got her bread honestly by keeping a house of entertainment for strangers. See below.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22 Jos 2:1. And Joshua sent — Or, had sent,…
Jos 2:1. And Joshua sent — Or, had sent, before the directions mentioned in the preceding chapter (Jos 2:10-11,) were given to the officers. This best agrees with Jos 2:22 of this chapter, and the rest of the narrative. Two men — Not twelve, as Moses did, because those were to view the whole land, these but a small parcel of it. To spy — That is, to learn the state of the land and people. It is evident Joshua did not this out of distrust; it is probable he had God’s command and direction in it, for the encouragement of himself and his army. Secretly — With reference not to his enemies, that being the practice of all spies, but to the Israelites; a good caution to prevent the inconvenience which possibly might have arisen if their report had been discouraging. Jericho — That is, the land about Jericho, together with the city. Hebrew, the land and Jericho; that is, especially Jericho. A harlot’s house — Although the Hebrew word זונה, zonah, here rendered harlot, does also sometimes signify an innkeeper, or one who sells provisions; yet, as the former is certainly the common meaning of the term, and the sense in which it must frequently be necessarily taken, (see Gen 34:31; Jdg 11:1; Hos 1:2,) and as Rahab is called a harlot by two apostles, (Heb 11:31; Jas 2:25,) who use an expression of no such equivocal meaning, it seems evident she had once been a harlot, though undoubtedly was now reformed. They lodged there — Or, lay down, as the same word is rendered Jos 2:8, composed themselves to rest, but they were hindered from that intention.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 18, 22 An harlot’s house - In the face of the…
An harlot’s house - In the face of the parallel passages (e. g. Lev 21:7 : Jer 5:7) the rendering advocated for obvious reasons, namely, “the house of a woman, an innkeeper,” cannot be maintained. Rahab must remain an example under the Law similar to that Luk 7:37 under the Gospel, of “a woman that was a sinner,” yet, because of her faith, not only pardoned, but exalted to the highest honor. Rahab was admitted among the people of God; she intermarried into a chief family of a chief tribe, and found a place among the best remembered ancestors of King David and of Christ; thus receiving the temporal blessings of the covenant in largest measure. The spies would of course betake themselves to such a house in Jericho as they could visit without exciting suspicion; and the situation of Rahab’s, upon the wall Jos 2:15, rendered it especially suitable. It appears from Jos 2:4 that Rahab hid them before the King’s messengers reached her house, and probably as soon as the spies had come to her house. It is therefore most likely that they met with Rahab outside of Jericho (compare Gen 38:14), and ascertained where in the city she dwelt, and that they might entrust themselves to her care. Rahab (i. e. “spacious,” “wide.” Compare the name “Japheth” and Gen 9:27, note) is regarded by the fathers as a type of the Christian Church, which was gathered out of converts from the whole vast circle of pagan nations.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16, 18, 24 By night. Hebrew, "this night." (Calmet)
By night. Hebrew, "this night." (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 2. The sending out of the spies to Jericho
2. The sending out of the spies to Jericho
Joshua 2
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a. Sending of the Spies, and their Reception by Rahab
Jos_2:1-7
1And Joshua the son of Nun sent out of Shittim two men to spy [as spies] secretly, saying: Go, view the land, even [and] Jericho. And they went, and came into an harlot’s lot’s house, named Rahab, and lodged [lay down] there. 2And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children [sons] of Israel, to search out the country [ארץ, land]. 3And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which [who] are entered into thine house, for they be come to search out all the country [land]. 4And the woman took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me 5[and said: True,1 the men, came to me] but I wist [knew] not whence they were; and it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out; whither the men went, I wot [know] not: pursue after them quickly for ye shall overtake them. 6But she had brought them up to the roof of the house [omit: of the house2], and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order [spread out, or stacked up for herself] upon the roof. 7And the men pursued after them the way to [the] Jordan unto [to] the fords: and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they shut the gate.
b. Rescue of the Spies by Rahab on their Promise to her that, in the taking of the Land, they would spare her and hers
Jos_2:8-21
8And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof; and she 9said unto the men, I know that the Lord [Jehovah] hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint 10[נמֹגו, melt] because of you. For we have heard how the Lord [Jehovah] dried up the water of the Red Sea for [before] you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side [of the] Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed [ye devoted3]. 11And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts [heart] did melt [יִמֵּם, flow down], neither did [does] there remain any more courage in any man, because of you [ch. Jos_5:1]: for the Lord [Jehovah] your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. 12Now therefore [And now], I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord [Jehovah], since4 I have showed you kindness, that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s 13house, and give me a true token [a token of truth]; and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have 14[ch. Jos_6:23; Jos_6:25], and deliver our lives from death. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall be,5 when the Lord 15[Jehovah] hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee. Then she let them down by a [the] cord through the window: for her house was upon the town-wall [in the “wall-side,” Gesen.], and she dwelt upon the wall. 16And she said unto them: Get you to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned; and afterward may ye go 17[go ye] your way. And the men said unto her, We will be [are] blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear, [unless thou doest what we now say to thee]. 18Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet [crimson] thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring [gather] thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household home unto thee. 19And it shall be, that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless [blameless, as Jos_2:17]: and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head, if any hand be upon him. 20And if thou utter this our business, then we will be [are] quit [blameless] of thine oath which thou hast made us to [omit: to, as Jos_2:17] swear. 21And she said, According unto your words, so be it. And she sent them away, and they departed: and she bound the scarlet [crimson] line in the window.
c. Return of the Spies to Joshua
Jos_2:22-24
22And they went, and came to the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned: and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, but found them not. 23So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, and came to Joshua the son of Nun, and told him all things that befel them. 24And they said unto Joshua, Truly [omit: Truly6] the Lord [Jehovah] hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even [and also] all the inhabitants of the country [land] do faint [melt] because of us.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
a. Jos_2:1-7. Sending out of the Spies and their Reception by Rahab. Probably still the same day on which Joshua had received the divine command to cross the Jordan, he sends forth secretly two spies to go over to Jericho, which was somewhere about fourteen miles distant.
Jos_2:1. Shittim, Num_33:49, Abel-shittim, i. e. Meadow of the Acacias, from שִׁטָּה, acacia, probably lying northward from Beth-jeshimoth in the land of Moab, the last camping-place of the Israelites east of the Jordan, at the outlet of the Wady Heshban, known from the history of Balaam (Num_25:1; Mic_6:5), not far from the Jordan, 60 stadia = 3 hours from the place of crossing according to Josephus (Ant. iv. 8, 1; v. 1, 1; Bell. Jud. iv. 7, 6). Near to this evidently well chosen camp-ground (Num_24:5-6) lay the city of Beth-peor, where Moses delivered his last discourse and was buried (Deu_4:46; Deu_34:6). Compare, further, Knobel on Num_22:1, [and Stanley, S. & P. p. 291 f. Am. ed.—Tr.]
Spies. According to the LXX. two young men, nothing like which is said in the Heb. here, but in Jos_6:23 we learn that the spies were young men. At all events Joshua would choose brave and prudent men for this mission, because, having himself been one of the twelve spies (Num_13:9) he knew from experience the dangers to which they would be exposed. He takes only two and sends them secretly (חֶרֶשׁ, prop.: Silence, here used adverbially) that the enemy might get no intimation of it.7 Should he have done this? the question has been asked.8 Toward the answer it may be said, That the use of human prudence, with all trust in divine providence, is not only allowable, but often also a binding duty. Joshua ought not, in his position as a general, to enter into a strange and hostile land without having explored it first. He proceeded in full conformity with the example of Moses, Numbers 13.
Jericho. Written here “and everywhere in our book יְרִיחוֹ, but in the Pent. only יְרֵחוֹ,” Keil; 1Ki_16:34, יְרִיחֹה; a very strong city (Jos_6:1), the key to all the land west of the Jordan, the city of palm-trees (עִיר הַתִּמָרִים, Deu_34:3; Jdg_1:16; Judges 2 Jos_23:15); in the LXX., in the N. T. (Mat_20:29; Mar_10:46; Luk_18:35; Luk_19:1; Luk_10:30, Heb_11:30), and in Josephus (Bell. Jud. iv. 8, 3), ‘Iεριχώ; in Strabo xvi. 2, § 47, ‘Ιεριχοῦς; the city of odors and fragrance (from הֵרִיחַ ,רוּחַ, fragrant place; the ending הֹוֹ being for וֹן, comp. עַכּהֹ ,שִׁילהֹ, Gesen.9); just as far west of the Jordan as Shittim was east of it. The immediate vicinity of Jericho is very fertile. As the climate approximates to that of Egypt the harvest is ripe here by the end of March. Toward the Jordan, however, the surface is arid, and the region between Jericho and Jerusalem was a rocky wilderness,—the Quarantania, not even to this day entirely safe for travellers (Luk_10:30). Comp. Furrer, pp. 149, 151–154.
The spies successfully reach Jericho, towards evening (Jos_2:2); “at a time, therefore, when the courtezans traversed the streets (Pro_7:9 ff.; Isa_23:16); they met with Rahab and followed her to her house” (Knobel). She was a זֹנָה, πόρνη (Heb_11:31; Jam_2:25), and not an innkeeper פּוֹנְדְקִיתָא, πανδοκεύτρια (Josephus, Ant. v. 1, 2, Chald., Rabb., Vatab., Hess, Hist. of Josh. i. p. 37). Her name is mentioned also in the Genealogy of Jesus (Mat_1:5) where she appears as wife of Salma or Salmon, and mother of Boaz. “The Rabbins derive from her eight prophets and priests” (Knobel). The Epistle to the Hebrews, and that of James celebrate her memory and glorify her faith and her works (Heb_11:31; Jam_2:25). See on this the Doctrinal and Practical below. In our narrative she is seen as a very prudent person (Jos_2:4), of great presence of mind, degraded indeed, but by no means sunk in vice, and who therefore has intimations of the power of Jehovah the Almighty God (Jos_2:10-11).
To-night (הַלַּיְלָה as in Gen_19:5; Gen_19:34, here more precisely defined Jos_2:5). The king of Jericho receives word that in the evening twilight two strange men have arrived in Jericho and been received into Rahab’s house. Perhaps there were, as Calvin conjectures, men standing at the gates, to notice suspicious people, especially as they were aware, no doubt, in Jericho, of the intentions of the Hebrews beyond the Jordan. The king sends to Rahab, therefore (Jos_2:3), and demands that she shall give up the men. At the same moment (not earlier, as Keil supposes) she hides the spies, as the demand of the king’s servants was probably made from the outside, with which the “bring forth” (Jos_2:3) plainly agrees. She boldly lies to the king’s messengers (Jos_2:4-5) who go away, frustrated, in order to pursue as soon as possible Joshua’s spies, whom they suppose to have escaped and fled toward the Jordan (Jos_2:7).
Jos_2:3. Notice the full circumstantiality of the king’s command.
Jos_2:4. In וַתִּצְפְּנוֹ the suff. sing, is not to be changed into ־ֵם, but is an instance rather of “the free discourse in which one passes from the plural to the singular” (comp. Ewald, Gramm. § 309 a.).10
I knew not... . . Spoken with the air of simplicity.
Jos_2:5. And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate. Heb. לִסְגּוֹר וַיְהי הַשַּׁעַר as Gen_15:12, וַיְהִי הַשֶּׁמֶשׁ לָבאֹ, and it came to pass about the time of the going down of the sun (cf. Gesen. § 132, Rem. 1).
When it was dark, בְּחשֶׁךְ, De Wette: as it grew dusk. It may, however, well be translated, “when it was dark,” since in the East, night comes on soon after sundown, and the evening twilight (נֶשֶׁף, Job_24:15; Pro_7:9) is of very short duration, so that sometimes נֶשֶׁף signifies simply night (Isa_5:11; Isa_21:4; Isa_59:10).
Jos_2:6, relates further where and how Rahab had hidden the spies (Jos_2:4) on the roof, under the stems of flax. The roof was flat (Mar_2:4) According to the Jewish law it must be provided with a “battlement” (Deu_22:8), that blood should not come upon the house by any one falling therefrom. “Here many men,” as Starke observes, “might stay together, Jdg_16:27 (comp. also Act_2:1); they could walk about there within the battlement securely (2Sa_11:2); could speak from thence to others (Mat_10:27), and there they used to pray (Act_10:9). The Romans also, but not all, had such roofs, and not over the whole house; but parts of some of their houses were furnished with such flat roofs which were called solaria, because they lay exposed on all sides to the sun, and also mœniana, as the Italians now also call them altana.בְּפִּשְׁתֵּי הָעֵץ, LXX. correctly ἐν τῇ λινοκαλάμῃ, Vulg. stipula lini, therefore flax-stalks, not cotton, as De Wette (cf. also Furrer p. 151, obs. 2), following the Arab. translation will have it, “since פִּשׁתָּה and פֵּשֶׁת or פִּשְׁתֶּה are everywhere else used only of flax” (Knobel). Unbroken flax is meant, the stalks of which, about Jericho as in Egypt, reach a height of more than three feet and the thickness of a reed (comp. Winer, Realw., s. v. “Flachs” [and Smith’s Dict.])
Jos_2:7. To the fords—A more exact determination of “the way,” and not to be referred to “they pursued after.” The fords themselves cannot be identified; one may consult the maps, especially Van de Velde, who gives a road from Jericho southeastwardly to a ford.
c. Jos_2:8-21. Rescue of the Spies by Rahab, on their Promise to her that in the taking of the land they will spare her and hers. After the departure of the royal messengers Rahab goes up on the roof to the spies, describes to them the faint-heartedness of the people, desires an oath from them as security that they will show kindness to her and her family in return for her kindness to them, and after receiving this lets the men down by a rope through the window (Jos_2:8-15).
Jos_2:9. Jehovah. The word is remarkable as used by Rahab, but she might easily, as even Knobel grants, be acquainted with the name of the God of Israel, as the people had already camped long in the neighborhood.
Terror is fallen upon us [אֵימַתְכֶּם, suff. having the force of obj. Gen.], Deu_2:25; Deu_11:25, cf. particularly Exo_15:13-16. The vision which was there expressed in Moses’ song of triumph (Jos_2:15) has now been fulfilled. The inhabitants of the land melt away for fear; for they have heard how God (Jos_2:10) has dried up the Red Sea (Psa_106:7; Psa_106:9; Psa_106:22; Psa_136:13, Heb. reed-sea, sea of reeds, and in Egypt, Schari-sea (schari = reed) i. e. the Arabian Gulf; and have heard also how ill it has gone with Sihon king of the Amorites (Num_21:21-31; Deu_2:30-37), who refused the Israelites a passage through his land (Num_21:23; Deu_2:30), and after him with Og king of Bashan (Num_21:33-35; Deu_3:1-7). Both have lost land and people by the edge of the sword, and the recollection of this victory lived yet in the memory of after ages, as may be seen from Psa_136:19-20. Gesenius derives סיחוֹן from סָחָה = סוּחַ, from which also סְחִי, sweepings, filth (περικάθαρμα, περίψημα, 1Co_4:13), comes. Granting the correctness of this etymology, the name Sihon might perhaps be rather a nickname which the Hebrews had applied to the Amorite chief than his real name; but this we will not assume to decide. The name עוֹג, from עוּג, according to the Arab., to bend, med. E. to be bent, crooked = the crooked one, would suit well with that supposition.
Ye devoted (הֶחֱרַמְתֶּם, Hiph. of הָדַם). The ground signification of the unused Kal is “to cut off,”11 in support of which we may compare partly חֶרְמֵשׁ, a sickle, and partly the related words הָרַת ,חָרַשׁ ,חָרַץ. Accordingly חֶרֶם is that which is cut off, separated, and especially, separated for God, devoted to him (Lev_27:21; Lev_27:28-29; Num_18:14; Deu_7:26; Deu_13:18; Jos_6:17-18; Jos_7:1 ff.; 1Sa_15:21; Eze_44:29), and that too “without a possibility of redemption,” ἀνάθεμα (Rom_9:3; 1Co_12:3; Gal_1:8-9; 1Co_16:22),12κατάρα (Gal_3:13). Objects of such a doom might be persons, as here Sihon and Og (comp. further 1Ki_20:42; Isa_34:5) or things (Jos_6:17-18; Jos_7:1 ff.). Therefore הֶחֱרִים is to put something under the ban, to doom, i. e. to consecrate or devote it exclusively to Jehovah without a possibility of redemption, whereby the consecrated object perishes, being destroyed. Thus the word is to be understood here as often in our book, Jos_8:26; Jos_10:28; Jos_10:37; Jos_11:21; Joshua 13 found in Jos_11:12, as in 1Sa_15:8, having “with the edge of the sword” appended. [See further on this subject the exeget. note on Jos_6:17, and the doctrinal and ethical there, No. 1.]
Jos_2:11. Neither did there remain any more courage, that is, on account of fear. Differently in 1Ki_10:5, where “there was no more spirit in her” expresses the result of astonishment,—Rahab recognizes God as the Almighty and Omnipresent, a knowledge which is possible to the heathen (Rom_1:19-21).
Jos_2:12. A token of truth, Heb. אוֹת, a sign, σημεῖον, tessara, as in Exo_3:12; 1Sa_2:34; 1Sa_10:7; 1Sa_10:9; 2Ki_19:29; 2Ki_20:8-9; Isa_7:11; Isa_7:14; Isa_38:7; Isa_38:22; Luk_2:12; 2Co_12:12; 2Th_3:17. [“Sign of truth, i. e. a sign by which they guarantee to her the truth, or reality of the exhibition of the חֵסֶד desired by her,” Keil.] Knobel interprets: “a proof, an evidence (Job_21:29), that you are honest and true men,” and supposes further that “Rahab points them to the moral law, which for a favor shown prescribes a thankful and true return,” and he rejects the common supposition of an outward sign, with the remark that “this would have been demanded by her not till after the request in Jos_2:13, and would have been given by the spies now before they were let down.”14 But (1.) such a sign might be required just as well before as after the request in Jos_2:13; (2.) all the passages quoted above, especially 2Ki_20:8-9; Isa_7:11; Isa_7:14; Isa_38:7; Isa_38:22; Luk_2:12; 2Th_3:17, favor the common explanation which is supported by an actual instance in 1Sa_18:3-4; (3.) in Jos_2:18 the crimson line is in fact given as such a “token;” (4.) Rahab might provisionally content herself with the oath given in Jos_2:14, although the sign was not yet given her, but she received it afterwards.
Jos_2:14. Our life for yours, [lit. “our soul instead of yours for death,” anima nostra pro vobis moriatur, Maur,] i. e. “You with the population of Jericho are threatened with death, but it shall not strike you but us, if we prove false; God shall in this case destroy us instead of you” (Knobel).
Jos_2:15. Her house was, etc. The house was built against the city wall, but she dwelt on the city wall, that is, her chamber was in the upper story of the house, which rose above the wall. Many such houses still stand in old cities, as along the Rhine, for instance.15 As the spies were rescued here so was Paul (Act_9:25) at Damascus. Starke makes here the following honest observation: “It was generally held, particularly in ancient times, punishable to leap or climb over a wall; but we readily see that this was so considered properly on account of the wanton contempt that was shown, comp. Neh_4:2. But here the thing was done to save the lives of innocent people and servants of God; besides, as has already been seen, Rahab was no longer bound to seek the interest and honor of her town, accursed and doomed by God.”
The men have reached the ground and stand below. Rahab, from above, advises them to turn to the mountain, while they point out to her the special conditions on which they will keep the oath; and then go their way (Jos_2:16-21).
Jos_2:16. Get you to the mountain. Probably the cavernous mountain to the north of Jericho, which the Arabs now call Kuruntul (see Robinson, 2:303 [Quarantania, see Stanley, S. & P 301 f.]). On the road to the Jordan the king’s messengers would undoubtedly have met them, as Rahab implies in the beginning of her counsel, “lest the pursuers meet you.”
Jos_2:17. We are blameless, etc. To understand these words we must supply: Unless you do what we shall now say to you, Gen_24:41.
Jos_2:18-20. This line of crimson thread קָו = תִּקְוָה is line, not rope, חֶבֶל. This line was spun out of “crimson thread” (חוּט הַשָּׁנִי). שָׁנִי is the crimson color produced by תּוֹלַעַת שָׁנִי, Coccus ilicis, Linn, a cochineal insect living on the holm-oak, the larvæ of which yield the crimson dye (“crimson,” from the Arabic name of the insect, Kermes). This line is to be distinguished from the cord (Jos_2:15), and not identified with it as is done by Luther, who even connects the relative clause אֲשְׁר־־בוֹ ungrammatically with חוּט ה׳ instead of חַלּוֹן, as Knobel also approves. This is the “token “given by the spies to Rahab, and by her (Jos_2:21) fastened to the window.16 A thick red cord would hardly have been proper for this, as Schulz perceived when he remarked: “Neque etiam probabile est, eundem ilium funem, quo Rachab in demittendis exploratoribus usa sit (Jos_2:15), fenestræ alligatum fuisse, uti Lutheri versio vernaeula statuit multis sequacibus; funis enim iste facilem suspieionem movisset, exploratores in Rachabis ædibus quæsitos ejus restis ope demissos esse, cum contra tenue ae leve filum collineum nihil suspecti haberet.” This view is held also by Maurer and Keil, and before Schulz, by J. D. Michaelis. From its bright red color the line was visible at a distance. But how did Rahab reach the line when the men were below and she above at the window? They probably fastened it to the cord which she then drew up. To this first condition the spies add a second, namely, they would be clear of their oath also if she did not gather all her relatives into her house, which they were not to leave (Jos_2:18-19). The third and last condition is that Rahab shall betray nothing (Jos_2:20).
His blood be upon us. Blood = blood-guiltiness, responsibility for blood, Gen_37:26; Lev_17:4. In this signification we have the plural also דָּמִים. Hence בֵּ ת ,עִיר דָּמִים, house, city of blood, 2Sa_21:1; Eze_22:2; “man of blood,” Psa_5:7; Psa_26:9. Compare besides Mat_27:19; Mat_27:24-25.
Jos_2:21. She fastened the line in the window, not the cord.
c. Jos_2:22-24. Return of the Spies to Joshua. The last verses of the chapter relate the return of the spies who, after tarrying three days in the mountain, recrossed the Jordan [probably by swimming, as the water at this season was too high to ford.—Tr.] and came with joyful tidings to Joshua (Jos_2:22-23).
All that befel them. “The אוֹהָם כָּל־הַמֹּצאוֹת is synonymous with כָּל־הַקְּרֹת אוֹהָםGen_42:29” (Keil) “On מָצָא, to overtake, befall, comp. Exo_18:8; Num_20:14. Similarly קְרֹת, Gen_42:29.” (Knobel)
Jos_2:24 contains the most important part of their report, that the inhabitants of Canaan were very much dispirited and fearful (נָמֹגוּ, as in Jos_2:9).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Besides that Rahab has received an honorable position in the genealogical record of Jesus (Mat_1:5), she is mentioned with praise by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_11:31) as well as by James (Jam_2:25), as a woman of vigorous faith. “The former of these,” as Rüetschi observes (Real-Encyklop. xii. 514), is followed by Clemens Rom. who not only makes Rahab a pattern of πίστις and φιλοξενία, but praises in her a certain προφητεία, since he finds in the red line a sign of the redemption through Christ’s blood of all who believe and hope in the Lord.” This red line is applied allegorically by Starke also, “This red, scarlet precious line,” he says, “leads us to the blood of the paschal lamb of the O. T. ... but still more plainly points us to the precious, crimson blood of Jesus, shed for us, etc., by which we are upheld and kept unto salvation, as Rahab and her family were kept alive and safe by that red line.”
It need scarcely be said that the Scripture itself knows nothing of this signification of the red line, and yet it may be well worth while to subject the two passages, Heb_11:31 and Jam_2:25, to a brief examination. In Hebrews 11 it had just been said that the walls of Jericho fell down through faith after they had been compassed about by the Israelites seven days. Then we read: “by faith the harlot Rahab perished not (οὐ συναπώλετο) with them that believed not (τοῖς ἀπειθήσασι,) since she received the spies with peace (μετ̓ εἰρήνης, Luth.: with friendship). Faith is thus ascribed to her as to the Israelites, that faith, namely, which is the “substance” a confident expectation (ὑπόστασις) of that for which one hopes, and the “evidence,” or conviction of the reality of things not seen (Heb_11:1). She is also called, honestly, πόρνη, while the Rabbins (see above, after the example of Josephus, Ant. v. 12, 7), uniformly make of her an inn-keeper, or also a concubine (Kimchi). On the same track Christian interpreters followed later, proposing to translate the זוֹנָה “stranger” or “heathen woman.” But in this matter we must abide by the historical truth of the Epistle to the Hebrews, as Matthew also, in bringing in Tamar, Rahab and Bathsheba into the genealogical register, “without doubt aimed to show the Jewish-Pharisaic spirit that there was a higher righteousness than that of outward Jewish holiness” (Lange, Comm. on Mat_1:5). By her faith Rahab was led to this higher righteousness, “and rose above the fact that she had until then been a heathen and a harlot” (Lange, l. c.). Therefore she perished not with the unbelievers when she had received the spies with peace. Her faith in the God of heaven and earth (Jos_2:11) had so sharpened her sight that she distinctly foresaw the conquest of the land (Jos_2:9) and clearly perceived the disheartened mind of the Canaanites. It was a strong faith, which showed its fruits in works of love (Gal_5:6). Hence James places her beside Abraham (Jos_2:24) and says of her that by (ἐξ) works she was justified; “likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified (ἐδικαιώθη) by works since she received the messengers (ἀγγέλους not κατασκόπους, as in Heb_11:31) and sent them out another way.” We first notice here that, as in Hebrews 11, Rahab is called πόρνη, then that her practical faith exhibited in the reception of the spies is praised, as Abraham’s practical faith manifested in the offering of Isaac is in Jos_2:21. But yet it is in James also expressly faith (Jos_2:22) which constitutes the principle of all outward conduct. Therefore, since we must deny all fundamental difference between Paul and James, we cannot agree with Rüetschi in saying (ubi sup.): “The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews brings forward Rahab as an example of faith, and James (Jam_2:25) consistently with his position, as an example of righteousness through works.” For, in reference to ἐδικαιώθη, Lange has hit the truth when he says on this passage, “The term δικαίουν means with James, according to the O. T. way of speaking but with a N. T. depth, that God declares righteous in the theocratic forum before the theocratic congregation regarded as permanent. It is the divine declaration of the proof [proved reality?] of faith in God’s kingdom and for it, while the λογίζεσθαι εἶς δικαιοσύνην of James, or the δικαίουν of Paul is an act which passes simply between God and the sinner in the forum of his consciousness.” In this theocratic sense now Rahab was justified, “not merely in that her life was granted (Joshua 2; Jos_6:22 ff.), but in that, still further, she became a highly honored mother in Israel” Lange, Comm. on James in l. c.). Her faith was not a dead faith but living and effectually active. But faith remains ever, even according to the view of James, the principle of her action, for he adds in confirmation of this (Jam_2:26): “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so is faith also without works dead.” Faith must perfect itself through works (Jos_2:22) that it may suffice for justification not only before God but also before the congregation. So was it with Abraham’s and also with Rahab’s faith. Both stand justified before God and before men; before God immediately through faith, before men through faith, evincing, certifying, displaying itself in works.
[If God acts He goes beyond the limits of the existing dispensation, and oversteps his established relationships with man. It is thus that the divine nature of Jesus, and the divine rights of his person, manifested themselves. He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. That was the limit of his formal relationship with men. But if faith lays hold of the goodness of God, can that goodness deny itself, or limit itself, to those who for the time being were alone the subjects of his dispensation? No, Christ could not say, God is not good, I am not good, to the degree you have imagined. How could God deny himself? The Syrophenician woman obtains what she asks for. Precious prerogative of faith, which knows and owns God through everything; which honors Him as He is, and ever finds Him what He is!”
“Wherein was manifested that faith in Rahab which the Apostle cites as a pattern? Admirable proof that the way in which God acts in grace is before and above law, that grace overleaps the boundary which law ascribes to man, even while maintaining its authority,—an authority, however, which can only manifest itself in condemnation. What then was Rahab’s faith? It was the faith which recognizes that God is with his people, all weak and few as they may be, unpossessed of their inheritance, wandering on the earth without a country, but beloved of God. If Abraham believed God when there was not a people, Rahab identified herself with this people when they had nothing but God.” Darby, p. 309.—Tr.]
But Rahab lied to the messengers of her king. Did this falsehood also come through faith? Certainly not; rather in it she showed her natura disposition, precisely as it was with the Hebrew midwives (Exo_1:19) who, although they feared God (Exo_1:17), nevertheless deceived Pharaoh; or with that woman at Bahurim (2Sa_17:18-20), who denied that Ahimaaz and Jonathan, David’s spies, were with her when Absalom’s servant sought them. Abraham on the other hand, when Isaac’s perplexing question (Gen_22:7) tempted to a so-called “white” lie, answered from faith (Gen_22:8) and gave in so doing an example for every one in such cases.
[Added from Keil by the translator The falsehood with which Rahab was shrewd enough not only to turn off all suspicion of her being in collusion with the men of Israel who had come into her house, but also to lead the further pursuit of them away from her house, and to frustrate the attempts to capture them, can be excused neither as a lie of necessity to accomplish a good end, nor with Grotius on the unfounded plea, that “ante Evangelium mendacium viris bonis salutare culpæ non ducebatur.” Nor can it be explained as either “allowed” or “even praiseworthy,” because the author simply reports the fact without judgment of his own, nor yet because Rahab, as appears from what follows (Jos_2:9 ff.), being persuaded of Jehovah’s omnipotence and of the reality of the miracles wrought by God for his people, acted in pious faith that the true God would give the land of Canaan to the Israelites, and that all opposition to them was vain and a resistance to Almighty God himself. For a lie is and always must be a sin. Although, therefore, Rahab in this was moved by no thought of protecting herself and her family from destruction, and the disposition from which she acted was rooted simply in faith in the living God (πίστει, Heb_11:31), so that what she did in this disposition for the spies, and so for God’s cause, is reckoned to her for righteousness (ἐξ ἔργων ἐδικαιώθη, Jam_2:25), still the course which she adopted was a sin of weakness, which for her faith’s sake was graciously forgiven her,—an “infirmitas, quæ ipsi ob fidem gratiose condonata est.” Calov.—Tr.]
2. That the spies gave their oath was quite proper, since “necessity required it.” Generally in antiquity, and so also among the Israelites, the taking of oaths was much more common than with us (Gen_24:37; Gen_1:5.; Jdg_21:5; 1Sa_14:24 etc., Mat_14:7), and this was especially the case in private intercourse. To avoid, as far as possible, the use of God’s name in this, they in later times availed themselves of other objects by which to swear, as clearly appears from Mat_5:33-37; Mat_23:16 ff.; Jam_5:12. Against such frivolous swearing both Christ and the Apostle James speak, while both alike indicate the ideal of Christian truthfulness in that yea should be yea, and nay, nay. The more our life and the life of others approaches to perfection, the less need will there be of oaths and confirmation of the nature of oaths. In the private intercourse of Christians with each other, this is indeed the case now wherever the spirit of Christianity is in any considerable degree active in their hearts. The state also will have to strive after this, but as things in general now are, and representing as it does the law and not the gospel, it cannot yet forego the oath as a means of justice.17 Therefore the Christian also, out of obedience to “the powers that be” (Rom_13:1) will have to submit to the taking of the oath. The rejection of the oath by Anabaptists, Mennonites, and Quakers, was closely connected with that of military service, and with the refusal to assume public offices, and rested on antinomianism.—That to pledge the soul, therefore the life, as is done here, Jos_2:14, and elsewhere in the O. T., is not allowable for us Christians, needs no argument. On the other hand, it is carefully to be observed, and has with right been specially pointed out by interpreters of this passage, what care the spies take with the conditions, under which they should be clear of their oath; how precisely they put them in form, how clearly and plainly they express them, that they might not afterwards be charged with perjury (Jos_2:14; Jos_2:17 ff.) Another example of great conscientiousness in reference to an oath, see in Jos_9:19-20.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The sending of the spies to Jericho. (1.) Sending forth and reception by Rahab (Jos_2:1-7); (2.) their rescue (Jos_2:8-21); (3.) their return to Joshua (Jos_2:22-24).—The heathen woman Rahab as a heathen of true faith, with reference to Heb_11:31; Jam_2:25.—Base things before the world and things which are despised has God chosen—proved by the example of Rahab especially as presented by Mat_1:5. Comp. 1Co_1:28.—How faith sharpens discernment concerning the condition of an individual or of a whole people.—Despondency as a result of heathen sentiment and life.—Even yet we may hear what the Lord does if only we will hear.—The glory of God as (1.) above in heaven, and (2.) below, on the earth.—One should care not only for himself but for all those belonging to him.—Rahab as a faithful daughter and sister.—Kindness and truth a beautiful ornament of God, not less also of men.—The rescue of the spies out of Jericho and that of Paul out of Damascus compared with each other (Jos_2:15; Act_9:25). Good advice ought always to be received. Proceed carefully when you have to take an oath, that no one afterwards may charge you with its violation.—Of an oath; (1.) when is it allowable? (2.) what is it? (3.) what results from it?—Let it be as you say—much spoken in few words.—The joyful return of the spies to Joshua with praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.
Starke: Christian! To us also heaven is promised, Luk_13:24; Col_3:1-2 [Heb_4:1; Heb_4:11]. Truth and friendship are never better sought than in extreme danger.—Woman’s craft exceeds all craft, therefore beware of it. By God’s name only should one swear, Deu_6:13, Zep_1:5.—How sacred and inviolate must the oath have been at all times among the Israelites, when even a heathen woman would trust her life to it. O, that Christians would observe this, and keep their oaths also sacred and inviolate! Ecc_5:4.—In making contracts men should explain themselves clearly to each other, and use no ambiguous language.—Christians should be silent, for a loquacious tongue brings many into sorrow, Pro_13:3; Pro_13:16; [Jam_2:2 ff.]. In time of persecution to conceal one’s self is quite proper for the ministers and servants of God also. God can soon take courage away from enemies.
Hedinger: While one has ordinary means one should use them; but if these fail one may betake one’s self to God’s immediate help. We enter not by the little side door except when the great portal is shut. Even the greatest sinners when they truly repent, are agreeable to God (Jer_5:3). One discreet and faithful person in a house is wont to cause much good; where, on the contrary, all are careless and secure, then it often happens that they all perish together (Gen_39:2-5).
Cramer: For the best good of his country every patriot should give himself up even to the hazard of body and life (1Sa_17:41). Those who are on their journeys God can wonderfully keep from dangers, Psa_31:21; Psa_91:1.
Osiander: Right faith breaks forth thus in free confession of the truth, magnifying and praising God, and streaming out in love towards fellow men.
[Matthew Henry: There are many who before their conversion were very wicked and vile, and yet afterward come to great eminence in faith and holiness.—They who truly believe the divine revelation concerning the ruin of sinners, and the grant of the heavenly land to God’s Israel, will give diligence to flee from the wrath to come, and to lay hold on eternal life, by joining themselves to God and to his people.—They that will be conscientious in keeping their promises will be cautious in making them, and perhaps may insert conditions which others may think frivolous.—Sinners’ frights are sometimes sure presages of their fall.
Thos. Scott (on Jos_2:12-13): When we really discover the danger to which our souls are exposed, from the wrath of an offended God, and are earnestly seeking salvation, we shall begin to feel for those who are not sensible of their own lost condition. This will induce us to attempt what we can to forward the salvation of our beloved friends and relations; and thus they who have been the grief and disgrace of their families, may, by the grace of God, become their protection as well as ornament.—Tr.]
Footnotes:
[1][Jos_2:4.—So the lexicographers and interpreters with one consent understand כֵּן.—Tr.]
[2][Jos_2:6.—“Of her house” is purely superfluous. The LXX. had substituted δῶμα for גָּג, and the Vulgate combined both notions, and was followed by the English Version.—Tr.]
[3][Jos_2:10.—הֶחֱרַמְתֶּם. The meaning of this verb is well indicated in the Exegetical Note on the verse. It seems very desirable to express it more specifically than is done by the vague phrase “utterly destroyed.” In employing for this purpose, throughtout, the word “devote,” which is used Lev_27:28-29, Num_17:14, etc., it is to be regretted that we have not a cognate noun to denote the devoted object. Still we may come near to the Hebrew directness by adhering to “devote,” “devoted thing,” etc. —Tr.
[4][Jos_2:12.—כִּי ut alias sœpissime significat quod ὅτι. Maur. To imitate exactly the Hebrew construction is not possible in idiomatic English. A nearer approach to it would be: Swear. ... that I have shown you kindness and ye will also show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a token of truth (Jos_2:13), and save alive, etc. Fay explains by inserting after “that” [as], De Wette, “because,” and both omit, of course, the “and” before “give me,” or rather substitute “also.” Either way gives us substantially the proper sense so far, but whether the verbs נְחַתֶּם and הַחֲיִתֶםְ and הִצַּלְתֶּם are to be translated as coördinate with עֲשִיהֶם and subordinate to הִשָּׂבְעוּ (which they grammatically are), or as coördinate with the latter, the practice of interpreters differs. We incline to side with Masius, who translates the verbs in question as all depending alike on כִּי: jurate. ... Vos usuros esse. ... pietate; et daturos. ... conservaturosque . ... crepturosque.—Tr.]
[5][Jos_2:14.—Modify, and connect the two sentences thus: Our life for yours! If ye utter not this our business, them it shall be that when, etc.—Tr.]
[6][Jos_2:24.—כִּי simply introduces the following clause as quoted. See Gesen. Lex. B. 1, b.—Tr.]
[7][The accent connects חֶרֶשׁ with לֵאמֹר, and it is probable that the secrecy is to be understood as referring equally to the Israelites and to the Canaanites. Maurer would seem to confine it to the former. He quotes Schultz as follows: “Cum Josua tristi experientia edoctus (Num_13:14) sciret, quantum periculi habere posset exploratorum et multitudo et missio publica, duos tantum eosdemque clam atque inscio populo emisit, ne, si tristia referrent, in vulgus dimanaret narratio, timidoque ac fracto animo fierent Israelitæ læto cæteroquin duorum æque ac plurium nuntio facile alacriores futuri.”—Tr.]
[8][E. g. by Masius in loc., who formally discusses the question and decides it in favor of Joshua’s course.—Tr.]
[9][For other derivations and other forms of the word, see art. “Jericho,” in Smith’s Bibl. Dict. where also a full topographical and historical account of the city may be found. See Stanley, S. & P. pp. 299–304.—Tr.]
[10][Speculations of the Rabbis on this, given by Masius, are curious. “This use of the sing. R. Solomon thinks to indicate both the delay of the woman in hiding them, and the narrowness of the place in which they were stowed away. RR. Kimchi and Levi, however, suppose them to have been hid not in one and the same place, but each one separately, either that the flax piled on them both might not rise too high and become thus an object of suspicion, or lest they should both be discovered at once. .... What is handed down in the Commentary which we have said to be called Tanhuma, is a Jewish dream, to wit, that when the woman had hidden Caleb, the other, Phinehas, said to her: I am a priest. Now the priests, being like the angels, are visible when they please to be, when not they are not perceived; therefore the other one alone, not he, was hidden by the woman.” Com. in Josuam, in loc.—Tr.]
[11][So Winer (Simonis Lex.); Gesen. and Fürst take separate views of the etymology of the verb, but all agree as to the meaning of this form.—Tr.]
[12][See Smith’s Dict, of the Bible, art. Anathema.—Tr.]
[13][Whatever unholy object was devoted to Jehovah, being. of course, incapable of use, for him and for his cause, and in abomination in his sight, must needs be destroyed.—Tr.]
[14][Keil also supposes that “this sign consisted in nothing else than the solemn oath which they were called upon to render and did render, ver 14.” This view, however, it may be remarked, is entirely precluded by the translation of Jos_2:12-13, advocated above in the textual note on the passage; for what the men are called upon to swear that they will do, they cannot in the very act be doing.—Tr.]
[15][Knobel supposes the house may have been partly embraced within the wall, and Rahab’s chamber strictly on top of the wall “which must therefore have been tolerably thick.”—Tr.]
[16][Knobel denying the reference to any material sign inner. 12, is obliged by the art. in הַזֶּה to identify תִּקְוָה (line) with הַחֶבֶל (rope) Jos_2:15—Tr.
[17] [On the propriety in itself of the appeal to God by a sincere worshipper in confirmation of his veracity (which is essentially the oath, see Tholuck’s Com. on the Sermon on the Mount. at Mat_14:33-36. But this being fully granted, it seems to the present writer extremely questionable whether the entire disuse of such appeals before our courts, custom house officials, revenue assessors, etc. etc., would not rather promote the ends of justice, while it would certainly do away with a shocking scandal to religion. This is of course, on the supposition that something like the “affirmation” now allowed should be regularly substituted, and the civil penalties for falsehood here be righteously assigned and rigorously exacted. It is one thing to conjecture of what use the oath might be in these civil transactions if reverently administered and intelligently taken; it is quite another thing which we actually witness, and are likely to witness, when men by myriads throughout the land daily mumble over the most solemn form of words, without a thought of their significance, and seal the mockery for the most part by an act of superstitious nonsense. When we consider that an oath thus carelessly employed, is in the most aggravated sense, taking the name of God in vain, and that our laws almost necessitate this in cases so numerous that their united sound may be imagined rising as a constant murmur to heaven amidst the voice of our public life, we may well dread the condemnation due to a profane people. Is there really any counterbalancing gain in the ascertainment of the truth?
Is not the evidence now got by affirmations as satisfactory as that by oaths? The word of the man who actually regards God needs not the sanction of an oath; for him who does not the penitentiary alone has any terror, and to that he might as well appeal.—Tr.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16, 21 it was told the king--by the sentinels who at…
it was told the king--by the sentinels who at such a time of threatened invasion would be posted on the eastern frontier and whose duty required them to make a strict report to headquarters of the arrival of all strangers.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24 THE ADVENTURES OF THE TWO SPIES, Jos_2:1-24.
THE ADVENTURES OF THE TWO SPIES, Jos_2:1-24.
[Some forty years before this date Moses had sent out from the wilderness of Paran twelve spies, and among them Joshua, to search the Land of Promise. It was not a secret movement then, but the chosen twelve were prominent chiefs, “heads of the children of Israel.” Num_13:3. Only two of the twelve brought back an encouraging report, and it is noticeable that Joshua, one of the old spies, and now Moses’ successor, sends only two to spy out Jericho. For so dangerous a mission two were better than twelve.
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1. Sent out — Some render had sent, as in the margin, and suppose that the spies had been sent out some days before the events of the last chapter. But the vav consecutive with which this verse begins (וישׁלח) is properly rendered Then sent Joshua, etc., and a pluperfect rendering will not materially relieve the difficulty stated in Jos_1:11. “Even if the spies had been despatched before the events narrated in Jos_1:10-18, it would not be grammatically correct to render וישׁלח as a pluperfect; and much less is this allowable if such a supposition be unfounded.” — Keil.]
Shittim — The plain of acacia shrubs at the foot of the mountains on the eastern side of the Jordan, directly opposite Jericho, in which Moses had last pitched the Israelitish camp. Num_25:1; Num_33:49.
Secretly — The Masoretic conjunctive accent connects this word with saying, rather than with to spy, as is done in the English version; but the word is best understood as qualifying Joshua’s whole procedure. He communicated his orders to the two men, and also sent them out secretly in order to avoid betrayal by any evil-minded person in his own camp. All spying necessarily involves secrecy, and in this case the perilous business was a military necessity. An unexplored land was before them, and the number and spirit of the enemy, and his military preparations and plans, were utterly unknown to Joshua. Faith always uses means.
Even Jericho — The command may be better rendered. Go view the land, and particularly Jericho. This ancient town, (called also the “City of Palm Trees,”) was situated in a plain of the same name about six miles west of the Jordan, near where it enters into the Dead Sea, and about nineteen miles northeast of Jerusalem. It was a walled city, rich and populous, having commerce with Babylon and the far East. According to Stanley it was the only important town in the Jordan valley, and its situation must always have rendered its occupation necessary to any invader from the east. “It was the key of western Palestine, as standing at the entrance of the two main passes into the central mountains. From the issues of the torrent Kelt, on the south, to the copious spring, afterwards called the ‘Fountain of Elisha,’ on the north, the ancient city ran along the base of the mountains, and thus commanded the oasis of the desert valley, the garden of verdure, which clustering around these waters has, through the various stages of its long existence, secured its prosperity and grandeur.” The modern village Rihah is, by some travellers, identified with ancient Jericho, and is described by Dr. Olin as one of the meanest and foulest of Palestine, containing about forty houses, with a sickly, indolent, and vicious population.
Came into a harlot’s house — [Literally, into the house of a woman, a harlot. Their entrance into such a house would excite less suspicion, and, her house being upon the wall, (Jos_2:15,) their escape from the city in case of necessity would be more easy. Knobel supposes that, as it was evening twilight when the spies reached Jericho, the time when harlots were wont to walk the streets, (Job_24:15; Pro_7:9; Isaiah xxiii, 16,) they met with Rahab at some corner and followed her to her house.] Josephus and other Jewish writers, and also some Christian commentators, unwilling to believe that these spies, intrusted with such a responsible mission, would have gone to a harlot’s house, or that Rahab, who married Salmon and became an ancestress of our Lord, and is commended by an apostle, could have been a woman of ill-fame, maintain that she was not a harlot, but a hostess or inn-keeper. But the Hebrew word זונה means always, elsewhere, a harlot, and is so rendered in the Septuagint and Vulgate. Also in the New Testament she is called emphatically the harlot, η πορνη, (Heb_11:31; Jas_2:25.) And not only on philological grounds is the rendering hostess untenable, but oriental customs are against such an interpretation. In the east there are no proper inns, but as a kind of substitute there are khans or caravansaries (See note and cut at Luk_2:7.) It would have been a thing without parallel in that land for a single woman, or even a man, to be found keeping a public house. Rahab was probably unmarried; for though she had father and mother, brothers and sisters, (Jos_2:13,) there is no hint that she had husband or child, and it is notorious that in the east rarely any but disreputable women remain single. On her falsehoods and her faith, see note on Jos_2:5,
Lodged there —Rather, they lay down there. Jos_2:8 shows that they ascended the house top to pass the night there.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 24 Ch. Jos_2:1-7. The Mission of the Spies to Jericho
Ch. Jos_2:1-7. The Mission of the Spies to Jericho
1. sent out] Or, had sent. Comp. ch. Jos_1:11, Jos_3:2. This was probably on the same day that Joshua received the Divine command to cross the Jordan.
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out of Shittim] Comp. Num_33:49; Num_25:1; Jos_3:1; Mic_6:5. The full name of the place is given in the first of these passages, “Abel Shittim” = “the Meadow” or “Moist Place of the Acacias.” It was in the “Arabah” or Jordan valley opposite Jericho, at the outlet of the Wâdy Heshbon, about 60 stadia = 3 hours from the place of crossing the river. “We were in the plain of Shittim, and on climbing a little eminence near, we could see the rich wilderness of garden, extending in unbroken verdure right into the corner at the north-east end of the Dead Sea, under the angle formed by the projection of the mountains of Moab, where the Wady Suiweimeh enters the lake. It is now called the Ghor es Seisaban.… Among the tangled wilderness, chiefly near its western edge, still grow many of the acacia trees, ‘Shittim’ (Acacia sayal), from which the district derived its appropriate name of Abel ha-Shittim, ‘the meadow or moist place of the acacias;’ ” Tristram’s Land of Israel, p. 524.
two men] “Young men” according to the LXX. and ch. Jos_6:23. Brave, doubtless, and prudent, such as Joshua, who had himself been one of the twelve spies (Num_13:16), would be likely to select, knowing, as he knew, all the dangers to which they would be exposed.
Jericho] “The first stage of Joshua’s conquest was the occupation of the vast trench, so to speak, which parted the Israelites from the mass of the Promised Land,” and which was dominated by the city of Jericho, a place of great antiquity and importance. It derived its name, = “the City of Palm Trees,” from a vast grove of noble palm-trees, nearly three miles broad, and eight miles long, which must have recalled to the few survivors of the old generation of the Israelites the magnificent palm-groves of Egypt. The capture of Jericho was essential for two reasons:
(a) Standing at the entrance of the main passes from the valley into the interior of Palestine,—the one branching off S. W. towards Olivet, and commanding the approach to Jerusalem, the other, to the N. E., towards Michmash, which defends the approach to Ai and Bethel—it was the key of the country to any invader coming as Joshua did from the East.
(b) It was for that age a strongly walled town and “enjoyed the benefit of one, if not two, of those copious streams which form the chief sources of such fertility as the valley of the Jordan contains.” Its reduction, therefore, must have been the first object of the operations of Joshua on entering the land of Canaan. See Stanley’s Sinai and Palestine, p. 305. “The strategy displayed by the Israelites under Joshua—considering it only as an ordinary historical event—is worth notice. Had Israel advanced on Palestine from the South, however victorious they might have been, they would have driven before them an ever-increasing mass of enemies, who after each repulse would gain fresh reinforcements, and could fall back on new fortifications and an untouched country, more and more difficult at each step. The Canaanites, if defeated on the heights of Hebron, would have held in succession those of Jerusalem and Mount Ephraim; and it is unlikely that the invaders would ever have reached the district of Gilboa, and Tabor, or the Sea of Tiberias. In all probability Israel would have been compelled to turn off to the low country—the land of the Philistines—and with the Canaanites on the vantage ground of the mountains of Judah and Ephraim, the nation would in its infancy have been trodden down by the march of the Assyrian and Egyptian armies, whose military road this was. By crossing Jordan, destroying Jericho, occupying the heights by a night-march, and delivering the crushing blow of the battle of Beth-horon, Joshua executed the favourite manœuvre of the greatest captain by sea or land, since the days of Nelson and Napoleon; he broke through and defeated the centre of the enemies’ line, and then stood in a position to strike with his whole force successively right and left.”—Note to Lenormant’s Manual of Oriental History, 1. p. 111.
and came into a harlot’s house] The spies traversed successfully the space which separated them from Jericho, crossing the fords or swimming, and entered the city towards evening (Jos_2:2). There was no one in the place to receive them, and it would have been perilous to have gone to a public khan or caravanserai. They, therefore, followed one of the courtesans, of whom there would be many in a Canaanitish city, to her home.
named Rahab] The name of this courtesan was Rahab. She probably, too, carried on the trade of lodging-keeper for wayfaring men. It would seem also that she was engaged in the manufacture of linen, and practised the art of dyeing, for which the Phœnicians were early famous, for we find the flat roof of the house covered with stalks of flax put there to dry, and a stock of scarlet or crimson line in her possession. Her name is mentioned in the genealogy of our Lord (Mat_1:5). There she appears as the wife of Salmon, the son of Naasson, by whom she became the mother of Boaz, the grandfather of Jesse. See Rth_4:20-21; 1Ch_2:11; 1Ch_2:51; 1Ch_2:54. Her faith and works are glorified in (a) the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_11:31), and (b) in the Epistle of St James (Jas_2:25).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 9, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 24 (1) Joshua . . . sent out of Shittim.—That…
II.
THE SPIES AND RAHAB.
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(1) Joshua . . . sent out of Shittim.—That is, he sent the spies before the people left the place where they had been encamped for some months (Num_22:1; Num_33:49). Shittim was the last stage of the Exodus under Moses. Probably the sending of these two spies was simultaneous with the issue of the general orders to Israel to prepare for the passage of Jordan within three days. The three days of Jos_1:11; Jos_2:22 appear to be the same period of time.
Two men to spy.—The sending of these spies should be compared, as to the general effect and character of the measure, with other similar events. There are three instances of sending spies in reference to Canaan—viz., (1) the sending of the twelve by Moses from Kadesh-barnea; (2) the instance before us; (3) the sending of men to view Ai. The present instance is the only one in which the measure had a good effect. In the case of the twelve, Moses describes the action as a manifestation of unbelief. The spies took upon them to discover the right path for Israel to take, a thing which was God’s prerogative, not theirs (Deu_1:22; Deu_1:32-33). The men who viewed Ai (Jos_7:2-3) came back and presumed to instruct Joshua how to proceed against it, with disastrous results. In this instance the two men brought back a report of the state of things in Jericho (exactly what they were ordered to do), which encouraged all Israel to proceed. Compare the effect of Gideon and Phurah’s visit to the camp of Midian (Jdg_7:11), “Thou shalt hear what they say, and. afterwards shall thine hands be strengthened.”
Into an harlot’s house, named Rahab.—The attempts to show that Rahab was not “an harlot” are not justified by the word used in Hebrew, or in the Greek of the LXX., or in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_11:31), or in that of St. James (Jas_2:25). But there is no harm in supposing that she was also an innkeeper, which the Targum calls her in every place; indeed, it is very probable that the spies would resort to a place of public entertainment, as most suitable for ascertaining the state of the public mind. How far they were disguised, how they came to be discovered, whether the king of Jericho knew of the impending march of Israel from Shittim, are questions of detail which the narrative leaves unanswered, and which the imagination may discuss at pleasure. The point of the story is not in these.
(1) There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were.—A falsehood which evidently left no stain on Rahab’s conscience, although all falsehood is sin. The same may be said of Jael’s slaying Sisera. The Divine standard of sin and holiness never varies; but the standard of man’s conscience, even when faith is a dominant principle in the character, may vary to a very considerable degree. In Jesus Christ “all that believe are justified from all things;” but “by the deeds of the law no one. Here, as elsewhere, the application of the law only brings the discovery of sin.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24 And Joshua the son of Nun sent. Rather, as…
RAHAB AND THE SPIES.
And Joshua the son of Nun sent. Rather, as margin, had sent. (see note on Jos_1:2) It might have been at the very time when the command was given to the Israelites, for, according to a common Hebrew manner of speech, (see, for instance, 1Sa_16:10) the three days (ver. 22) may include the whole time spent by the spies in their exploring expedition. Out of Shittim. Literally, from the valley of acacias. It is so called in full in Joe_3:18. This place, (called Abel-Shittim in Num_33:49) in which the Israelites had sojourned for some time, (see Num_25:1; cf. Nu 10 Num_12:1) seems to have been in the plains (tbor see note on Jos_4:13) of Moab, by Jordan, opposite Jericho". (Num_33:48, Num_33:49, 50 36:13; cf. Deu_1:5) It was "the long belt of acacia groves which mark with a line of verdure the upper terraces of the valley." (Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," p. 298). The word Abel, or meadow, signifying the long grass with its juicy moisture, points to it as a refreshing place of sojourn and pasture for flocks, after the weary wandering in the wilderness. The acacia, not the spina Aegyptiaca of the ancients, the mimosa Nilotica of Linnaeus, but the acacia Seyal, a tree with a golden tuft of blossom, which is still (Tristram, "Land of Israel," p. 524) to be found on the spot, very hard dark wood, of which much use was made in the tabernacle and its fittings. (see Ex 25 Ex 26 Ex 36 Ex 37, etc.) The name Abel was a common one in Palestine, and is the same as Abila, from whence comes Abilene. (Luk_3:1) We may add that it has nowhere been said that they were at Shittim. We find this out from Num_25:1. This undesigned coincidence is beyond the power of an inventor, and far beyond the power of a compiler who was not only untrustworthy, but so clumsy that he made the most extraordinary blunders in the management of his matter. (see note on next verse, and also on Jos_1:11) Two men. Young men, as we are told in Jos_6:23, and therefore active, fleet of foot as well as brave and prudent. All these qualities, as the subsequent narrative shows, were urgently required. "Joshua himself was full of God"s Spirit, and had the oracle of God ready for his direction. Yet now he goes, not to the Propitiatorie for consultation, but to the spies. Except where ordinaries means fails us, it is no use appealing to the immediate help of God; we may not seek to the postern, but where the common gate is shut. It was promised Joshua that bee should lead Israel into the promised land, yet he knew it was unsafe to presume. The condition of his provident care was included in that assurance of success. Heaven is promised to us, but not to our carelessness, infidelities, disobedience" (Bishop Hall). Secretly. Literally, dumbness or craftiness (the noun being used adverbially), implying the silence and skill required for the task. He who knows how to he silent possesses one at least of the elements of success. The necessity of silence and secrecy may be inferred from Jos_6:1. Keil, however, following the Masoretic punctuation, regards" secretly" as referring to the Israelites, and the spies as sent unknown to the army, that no depressing report might damp their courage. Jericho. "The city of fragrance" (from jwr to breathe, and in the Hiphil, to smell a sweet odour), so called from its situation in the midst of palm trees, from which it was called "the city of palm trees ryi in Deu_34:3 2Ch_28:15; cf. Jud_1:16. The vast palm grove, of which relics are even now occasionally washed up from the Red Sea, preserved by the salt in its acrid waters, has now disappeared. We read of it as still existing in the twelfth century, and indeed traces of it were to be seen as late as 1838. A dirty and poverty-stricken village called Riha, or Eriha, is all that now marks the site of all these glories of nature and art, and the most careful researches have until lately failed to discover any remains of the ancient city. It is doubtful whether the ruins observed by Tristram ("Land of Israel," p. 216) are not the ruins of soma later city, built in the neighbourhood. Bartlett, p. 452, believes Riha to be the site of the later Jericho of our Lord"s day, but Tristram would, with less probability, identify Riha with Gilgal. They both, however, place the site of ancient Jericho about a mile and a half from Riha. Conder thinks its true position is at the fountain Ain-es-Sultan. Lenormant, in his "Manual of Oriental History," remarks on the skill of Joshua as a military tactician. Whether he followed the advice of his experienced leader, or whether we are to attribute his success to special guidance from above, he certainly displayed the qualities of a consummate general. "Jericho," says Dean Stanley ("Sinai and Palestine," p. 805), "stands at the entrance of the main passes from the valley of the Jordan into the interior of Palestine, the one branching off to the southwest towards Olivet, the other to the northwest towards Michmash, which commands the approach to Ai and Bethel. It was thus the key of Palestine to any invader from this quarter." He illustrates by Chiavenna (or the key city, from its situation), in Italy. Lenormant remarks that from an ordinary historical point of view the strategy of Joshua is worth notice. It was the practice ever followed by Napoleon, and, he adds, by Nelson also, to divide his enemies, and crush them in detail. Had Joshua advanced upon Palestine from the south, each success, as it alarmed, would have also united the various communities of the land, under their separate kings, by the sense of a common danger. Thus each onward step would have increased his difficulties, and exposed him, exhausted by continued efforts, to the assaults of fresh and also more numerous enemies, in a country which grew ever more easy to defend and more perilous to attack. But by crossing the Jordan and marching at once upon Jericho, he was enabled, after the capture of that city, to fall with his whole force first upon the cities of the south, and then on those of the north. The political condition of Palestine at that time (see Introduction) did not permit of a resistance by the whole force of the country under a single leader. A hasty confederation of the kings of the south, after the treaty with Gibeon, was overthrown by the rapid advance of Joshua and the battle of Beth-boron. By this success he was free to march with his whole army northward, against the confederation of tribes under the leadership of the king of Hazor, whom he overcame in the decisive battle of Merom. There is no hint given in the Scripture that in this strategy Joshua acted under the special guidance of the Most High. The probability is, that in this, as in all other of God"s purposes effected through the agency of man, there is a mixture of the Divine and human elements, and that man"s individuality is selected and guided as an instrument of God"s purpose, which, in this instance, was the chastisement of the Canaanitish people, and the gift of the Holy Land as a possession to the descendants of Abraham. That Joshua was not indifferent to human means is shown by this very verse. Into a harlots house. Many commentators have striven to show that this word simply means an innkeeper, an office which, as Dr. Adam Clarke proves at length, was often filled by a woman. It has been derived from Wz to nourish, a root also found in the Syriac. The Chaldee paraphast and many Jewish and Christian interpreters have adopted this interpretation, in order, as Rosenmuller remarks, "to absolve her from whom Christ had His origin from the crime of prostitution." But St. Matthew seems to imply the very opposite. The genealogy there contained mentions, as though of set purpose, all the blots on the lineage of Christ as was fitting in setting forth the origin of Him who came to forgive sin. Only three women are there mentioned: Tamar, who was guilty of incest; Rahab, the harlot; and Ruth, the Moabitess. And the LXX render by pornh . Calvin calls the interpretation "innkeeper" a "presumptuous wresting of Scripture." Hengstenberg ("Geschichte des Reiches Gottes," p. 197) also rejects the interpretation "innkeeper," and maintains the right of the spies, who, he says, were no doubt chosen by Joshua for their good character, to enter a wicked woman"s house for a good purpose. It does not appear that the spies entered the house of Rahab with any evil intent, but simply because to enter the house of a woman of that kind and women of that kind must have been very numerous in the licentious Phoenician cities would have attracted far less attention than if they had entered any other. Even there it did not escape the notice of the king, who had been thoroughly alarmed (ver. 3) by the successes of Israel eastward of Jordan. Origen, in his third homily on Joshua, remarks that, "As the first Jesus sent his spies before him and they were received into the harlot"s house, so the second Jesus sent His forerunners, whom the publicans and harlots gladly received." Named Rahab. Origen (Hom. 3) sees in this name, which signifies room, (see Rehoboth, Gen_26:22) the type of the Church of Christ which extends throughout the world, and receives sinners. And lodged there. Literally, and lay there, perhaps with the idea of lying hid, for they did not (ver. 15) spend the night there.
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Vers. 1-12. Rahab and the spies.
Three points demand our attention in this narrative. First, the conduct of Joshua; secondly, of the spies; and thirdly, of Rahab.
I JOSHUA"S CONDUCT. Here we may observe that
1. He does not despise the use of means. He was under God"s special protection. God had promised (Jos_1:5) that he would not fail him nor forsake him. He had seen miracles wrought in abundance, and was destined to receive other proofs of God"s extraordinary presence with him.
Yet he does not rely on these, where his own prudence and diligence are sufficient. We must learn a similar lesson for ourselves
(a) in our external undertakings,
(b) in our internal warfare.
In both "God helps those that help themselves." We must "work out our own salvation," because it is "God that worketh in us," by ordinary as well as by extraordinary means. To pray to God for special help or direction, without doing our best to use the means placed within our reach, to exercise our reason, and to see His directing hand in the external circumstances of our lives, is mere fatalism. To expect to be freed from besetting sins, to triumph over temptations without effort on our own part, to have victory without struggle, perfection without perseverance, is mere selfishness and indolence.
2. The use of ordinary means, where possible, is a law of God"s kingdom.
God might have written His gospel in the skies. He might have proclaimed and might reproclaim it in voices of thunder from heaven. He might make it an irresistible influence from within. But He does not. He uses human means. Jesus Christ, like His prototype, sent His disciples two and two to go before Him. (Mar_6:7; it is implied in Mat_10:1 Luk_10:1) Human influence has ever since been the means of propagating Divine truth. And not only so, but to use extraordinary means when ordinary would suffice was a suggestion of the devil, peremptorily rejected twice by Jesus Christ; (Mat_4:4, 7 Luk_4:4, Luk_4:12) and this, because this world is God"s world as well as the other: reason and prudence, though subordinate in importance, yet are as much God"s gifts as faith.
II THE CONDUCT OF THE SPIES.
1. They preferred duty to reputation. The only house they could enter without suspicion was a house whither, under ordinary circumstances, it would have been impossible for them to go. So Christ"s disciples must not fear the comments of the evil-minded when duty calls upon them to incur suspicion. To give needless cause for slander is a sin: to shrink from seeking the lost for fear of it is a greater. Compare Boaz (Rth_3:14) with the spies here, and both with Jesus Christ. (Luk_7:37, Luk_7:38) Ministers of religion, physicians, and the purest-minded Christian women do not fear to visit the lowest haunts of vice for the temporal or spiritual welfare of those who inhabit them. It is well that their garb should proclaim the fact that they are on an errand of mercy. All needful precautions should be taken to preserve their reputation. But often they will have to put reputation and all in God"s hands, when duty calls, and they may be sure that all is safe with Him.
2. They went unmurmuring on a task of the utmost peril. So must God"s messengers now take their lives in their hands when they visit the sick, either to serve their bodies or their souls. The missionary confronts a similar risk when he carries to savage nations the good tidings of salvation by Christ. If He preserve them alive, they thank Him for His goodness; if not, the blood of such martyrs is still the seed of the Church. Men do and dare all for the sake of the temporal reward of the Victoria Cross. The messengers of Jesus Christ ought not to be less willing to risk all that is worth having in this life for the Eternal Crown. How rare is this spiritual gallantry, as we may call it! Yet it is rare only because genuine faith is rare. We believe in rewards that we can see. The unfading crown excites few longings, because it is of faith, not sight.
3. They did not recklessly expose themselves to danger. When Rahab bid them conceal themselves, they did so. They willingly accepted her aid in letting them down from the wall, and her advice in concealing themselves in the caves of the mountains. In so doing they did but anticipate the command, "When they persecute you in one city, flee ye into another". (Mat_10:23) Thus St. Peter concealed his residence from the disciples; (Act_12:17) St. Paul was let down in a basket from the wails of Damascus; (Act_9:25 2Co_11:33) St. Cyprian retired from his see for awhile that he might still continue to guide it while his guidance was needed. So now, to expose one"s life unnecessarily is suicide, not sanctity.
III RAHAB"S CONDUCT.
1. Her faith. This is commended in Heb_11:31. It was manifested by her conduct, as St. James tells us in Jos_2:2-5. For
(a) she incurred danger by acting as she did. This was a proof of the sincerity of her profession. For no one willingly incurs danger for what he does not believe. And
(b) the reason for her acting as she did was faith in God. It might not have been a strong faith. It was certainly a faith which had not had many advantages. She could have known little about Jehovah; but she recognised His hand in the drying up of the Red Sea and the discomfiture of Sihon and Og. Then
(c) the seems to have lived up to her light. To be a harlot was no very grievous offence in the eyes of a people who regarded that profession as consecrated to the service of the gods, as was the case in Babylonia, Syria, Cyprus, Corinth, and a host of other places. Yet she was not idle, as the stalks of flax imply, and perhaps, in spite of her impure life, the guilt of which she had no means of realising, she might have been one of those (Pro_31:18) who "seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." And so she was permitted to "feel after God and find him" as other sinners have been, through His merits who cried, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
2. Her unselfishness. She receives the men, knowing the danger she was in. She risks her life rather than give them up. She takes every care for their safety by her prudence and the excellent advice she gives them. As the next section shows, she had a regard, not merely for her own safety, but for that of her kindred. And this is a proof that she had striven to a degree after better things. For it is well known that nothing more deadens men and women to the gentler impulses of our nature, nothing has a greater tendency to produce cruelty and callousness to suffering, than the systematic indulgence of sensual passion.
3. Her falsehood. As the notes have shown, this was of course a sin, but in her case a venial one. Even Christian divines have held it to be a debatable question whether what Calvin calls a mendacium officiosum, a falsehood in the (supposed) way of duty, were permissible or not. And though this casuistry is chiefly that of Roman Catholic divines, yet Protestants have doubted whether a lie might not lawfully be told with the intent of saving life. In Rahab"s time the question had never arisen. Heathen and even Jewish morality had hardly arrived at the notion that the truth must in all cases be spoken. Sisera requested Jael, as a matter of course, to do what Rahab did. Jonathan deceives his father to save David"s life, and he is not blamed for doing so. (1Sa_20:28, 1Sa_20:29) David deceives Ahimelech the priest. (1Sa_21:2) Even Elisha appears not to have adhered to strict truth in 2Ki_6:19, and Gehazi is not punished so much for his lie as for his accepting a gift which his master had declined. Jeremiah, again, tells without hesitation the untruth Zedekiah asks him to tell. (Jer_38:24, Jer_38:27) How, then, should Rahab have known that it was wrong of her to deceive the messengers of the king, in order to save the spies alive?
4. Her treachery to her own people. This, under ordinary circumstances, would also have been a sin. But here the motive justifies the act. It was not the result of a mere slavish fear of Israelite success. It was due to the fact that she recognised the Israelites as being under the protection of the true God, who would punish the idolatry and impurity of the Canaanites. Resistance, she knew, was vain. Jehovah had given them the land. There could be no harm in delivering her own life, and the life of those dear to her, from the general slaughter. Besides, neither as a probable consequence nor in actual fact did the escape of the spies, through Rahab, affect the fate of Jericho. Not as a thing probable from her action, for the report of the spies, though it might supply Joshua with valuable information, could not bring about the fall of Jericho. Her conduct was not like that of Ephialtes at Thermopylae, or of Tarpeia at Rome. Nor did the report of the spies actually bring about the fall of Jericho, for it was effected by supernatural means. In conclusion, it may be remarked that Rahab was in a sense the "first fruits of the Gentiles." She was justified by faith, not by works, in the sense in which St. Paul uses the words. That is to say, her former life had not entitled her to the favour of God, though her work in saving the spies was effectual as an evidence of her faith. She was forgiven, saved, numbered among faithful Israel, and became a "mother in Israel." And as a "woman that was a sinner," she was a type of those whom Jesus Christ came to save, who, "dead in trespasses and sins, were quickened" by the grace and mercy of the true Joshua, our Lord Jesus Christ.
HOMILIES BY R. GLOVER Ver. 1. Forethought.
Let us play a little with this word. It has more in it than a good example for a military commander. And its side suggestions as to what is wise in all conflicts are many and valuable. Generalise the action of Joshua here, and its gives you some lesson of prudence in all departments of life. Let us gather a few of these.
I LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP. Always and everywhere do so. Many definitions have indicated the difference between man and the lower animals. One says, man is an animal that can strike a light; another, one which has language; another, one that can form abstract ideas. A very profound thinker recently taught us, "Man is an animal that knows what s o"clock," i.e. , that takes note of time. It is perhaps only an amplification of this last idea to add, man is an animal that thinks of tomorrow. The vegetable, in its vocabulary of time, knows only the word today; the animal knows yesterday and today; man alone lives in a yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He belongs to tomorrow as much as to today: is a sort of amphibious animal, living on the dry land of today and in the watery element of tomorrow. From tomorrow springs hope, fear, rest, distress. Man never is but always to be blest. This instinct of anticipation is natural because it is necessary. We cannot get on without "sending out spies." Unless we forecast what is coming we cannot prepare for it, enjoy it, or secure it. If we advance without forecasting, we find ourselves perplexed in simplest circumstances; helpless, though possessed of abundant resources; weak, though endued with force of character; unready, though competent and resolved. There are some who never seem taken at a disadvantage; they have their wits about them; have presence of mind to do the wise thing, and presence of heart to do the right. Their difficulties kindle elation, and always end in advantage. There are others who move like a worm cut in two, their reasoning and acting powers always lagging behind themselves. An opportunity only agitates them; a duty disturbs them; a difficulty deters them from any further advance. All their wise thoughts come in the shape of resolutions which are not acted on, or regrets which are enfeebling. The difference between these two classes of men arises from this. The former send out spies, and are prepared; the latter take no trouble to forecast wisely are always, therefore, taken by surprise. See that you look out well. Christ did not forbid thinking, but anxious thinking of tomorrow. Think what duties may come, and get ready, by prayer and self denial, the strength to do them. Think of opportunities, and get ready the clearness of view which will let you embrace them. Think of temptations, and by prayer protect yourself. Happy is the man who can so wisely anticipate that every duty, difficulty, danger, as it comes, finds him ready. Therefore, look before you leap, and send out spies.
II DO NOT SEND FORTH TOO MANY SPIES, NOR SEND THEM FORTH TOO FAR. Here Joshua sent two men to Jericho say ten miles away. There are some send all their forces out to spy, like a general who reconnoitres in force and does nothing else. They are always prospecting with all their powers. Their whole energies are given up to the guessing of the future. Reason, imagination, conscience, all are engaged in anticipation. So busy are they with tomorrow that they have but little strength left for today. Joshua did not reconnoitre in force, nor did he send out many to spy the land. He sends only two. Do not be always thinking on what is before you; it will become brooding, and when we brood our forecast is equally erroneous and enervating; nor let your whole soul go out into the tomorrow. Today needs the bulk of your powers. Tomorrow cannot claim so much. And doing today"s work well, while not the whole, is yet nine-tenths of preparation for the morrow. A little thought, a little care, a little preparation, is the lesson of Joshua"s two spies. And if we should not send forth too many, neither should we despatch them too far. Joshua limits his scrutiny to the immediate struggle before him. About to assail Jericho, he seeks all the information he can get on it So ought we to put a limit to our prospects. The distant advantage should be excluded from our dreams, and the remote danger from our apprehensions. What is immediately before him is a wise man"s care. And to take each stage as it comes into sight and provide for it is safety and wisdom alike. It is the golden mean between the levity of indifference and the torture of anxiety. Not too many spies must be sent out, nor too far afield.
III SEE THAT YOUR SPIES ARE FIT FOR THEIR TASK. It is not every soldier who will make a scout; for his task there is needed endurance, resource, coolness, daring, quickness of perception and of purpose, in their highest form. I assume that Joshua chose two fit men; partly because he had seen the invasion of Canaan postponed for forty years through the unfitness of the spies then sent, and also because the few glimpses we have of them show them to have been the right sort of men. We can see that they had the agility of youth (Jos_6:23) and the daring of faith, (Jos_2:24) and doubtless they had other qualities beside. See that the spies you send out are fit for their work. Some people employ their Wishes in this work, and these return with tale more flattering than true; some their mere imagination, which takes in all that may, can, or will happen; some send forth their fears, which return telling of countless lions in the way, and some their superstitions, which read auspices of good or omens of evil fortune in the simplest and most meaningless experiences. They choose unfit spies. If you are to send two, who shall they be? Of the first one there can be no doubt it must be faith, for faith has clearer eyesight than anything else. It sees the invisible. It beholds God as well as man; sees His moral as well as material laws at work; sees the elements of hope which He brings with Him into every scene; is the attribute of daring; can always find or make a way out of difficulties. Let faith have the forecasting as its charge. And if faith should be invariably one of the two spies, consecration should be the other. Spy out the future, not simply to know it, but with desire to use it. And to that end scrutinise the future with the eye of consecration, with the desire to see the opportunities of doing good, of growing in grace, of honouring God, of blessing man. Happy the man who chooses his spies well, and sees with trustful eye the help, and with loving purpose the opportunities, which lie before him. Lastly
IV SEND YOUR SPIES ACROSS JORDAN BEFORE YOU YOURSELF MAKE THE PASSAGE. It is not by accident of poetic fancy merely that the Jordan, dividing the land of sojourn from the land of rest, has been taken as an image of that "river without a bridge," across which is the better land. Of course like all analogies it is imperfect, for while God"s Israel finds rest in the heavenly Canaan, it finds no Canaanite to dispute the enjoyment of it. Still it is a suggestive emblem of the rugged, forbidding boundary beyond which is our land of milk and honey. And if our wisdom exercises itself in surveying every stage in advance and preparing for it, it certainly will find a special reason for surveying, and preparing for what is on the other side of the great dividing line between him and eternity. Have you sent out your spies there? Do you know exactly the sort of experience which is before you? Could you confidently pass over Jordan? Through your Saviour is it the abundant entrance that is waiting you? Do not confine your thoughts to Shittim, however sweet its shade of acacias may be; but prepare for what is beyond, and face the passage of the Jordan with the full knowledge and firm faith which would make your rest in Canaan sure. G.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE Ver. 1. A brand plucked from the fire.
This strange and somewhat romantic story of Rahab and the spies forms an interesting episode in the Scripture narrative. The special interest lies in the nature of the incidents and the character of the chief actor. Nothing is told us as to any definite result from the visit of the spies affecting the after siege and capture of the city, except so far as this, that they learnt from Rahab the alarm of the inhabitants at the approach of the Israelitish host. It shows, however, that, confident as Joshua may have been that the Lord was fighting on his side, he did not abstain from taking all proper precautions to ensure safety and success. God commonly works by the use of means and instruments, and they who have most living faith in His protecting and delivering power will be most careful to be coworkers with Him in all prudent forethought and diligence. We may, perhaps, best develop the moral teaching of this narrative by keeping the conduct of Rahab most prominently in mind. Her honourable distinction is that, as far as we know, she alone in all that dark, guilty land of Canaan was disposed to recognise the divinity that guided the onward march of the Israelites, and to welcome them to their destined inheritance. Certain moral difficulties have been felt by many in reference to the honour given to her name in Scripture. Her character and mode of life has been felt to be a difficulty; attempts have been made to show that "harlot" may simply mean "innkeeper." But this interpretation will not hold good. Much of the point and worth of the narrative depends on our regarding her as one of a class on whom Christ bestowed His pity; "a woman that was a sinner." Her treachery to her own people is condemned; but this, despicable as under ordinary circumstances it may be, is to be justified on the ground of loyalty to the God of Israel. It is a Christian principle that the claims of God are supreme over all other claims, even those that spring out of the ties of nature and of nationality. Her falsehood is a difficulty. No need to attempt to justify this. A low moral standard and the pressure of circumstances may palliate it, but cannot excuse. A lie must always be offensive to a God of truth. No skilful casuistry can make this aspect of her conduct right. But she is commended in Scripture, not for her treachery or falsehood, but for her faith (Heb_11:31 Jam_2:25) for the fact that, hearing of the wonders wrought by Jehovah, she believed Him to be the only true and living God, and so was moved to escape from the corruption of her own doomed city and cast in her lot with His people. The following lessons seem to be suggested:
I THE SIGNALS OF GOD"S GRACE MAY BE FOUND UNDER VERY UNLIKELY CONDITIONS. Here is a gleam of light in the midst of gross heathen darkness; a susceptibility to Divine impressions where it might least have been expected. The report of Israel"s successes could scarcely of itself have produced it. In her that report awakened faith and the desire for a purer life, but in her neighbours it only roused the recklessness of despair. It moved her to seek deliverance: it made them only the riper for their doom. Why this difference? We trace here the secret working of that Spirit from the Lord who prepares the souls of men for higher revelations of truth. God directed the spies to her house because He had first put it into her heart to receive them kindly. Thus within the vilest and the most degraded there may be latent possibilities of good that only need the outward incentive to call them forth. God is often nearer to men, and they are nearer to "the kingdom," than we suppose. He who came "to seek and to save that which was lost" made Himself the "friend of publicans and sinners," not only because they most needed Him, but because He saw that they were most ready to welcome Him. His word awakened an echo in their hearts, when proud Pharisaic hearts were hopelessly closed against it. It discovered and quickened germs of better life in the midst of corruption and death. It kindled hope in the region of despair. To the self-satisfied rulers of the people He said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
II REPENTANCE MAY TRANSFORM A LIFE OF SIN AND SHAME INTO ONE OF HONOUR AND RENOWN. Rahab"s sin was forgiven as soon as her heart turned to the Lord. There is a place for her in the commonwealth of Israel. Her faith saved not only herself, but her whole household (vers. 12, 18). She became the wife of Salmon, mother of Boaz, and thus ancestress of David and of Christ. (Mat_1:5, Mat_1:6) A suggestive hint of the way in which the grace of God can "graft the wild olive tree m among the natural branches," and make it abundantly fruitful to His praise. It not only wipes out the reproach of the past, but developes from it a rich and glorious future. Faculties that have been wasted in the service of sin become effective instruments of righteousness. The history of the Church is full of examples. As in the case of Saul of Tarsus, so in less conspicuous instances, God has often entered the ranks of the enemy and brought forth from them living trophies of His power, who have henceforth served nobly the cause that once they destroyed.
III THE REWARD OF GENEROUS TRUSTFULNESS. It is remarkable that this Canaanite woman should have had such confidence in the sanctity of a promise and oath (ver. 12). It is significant of eternal principles enshrined in the heart of man, which the most degrading conditions cannot wholly obliterate. Note here, not only a Divine Providence, but a law of human nature. There is trust on both sides. The woman meets the spies with generous kindness, takes their life under her protection, and they in return keep sacred watch and guard over hers. It is a valuable lesson for all time. "With what measure ye meet," etc.; "Blessed are the merciful," etc. The trustful soul is trusted. Love begets love. "For a good man some would even dare to die." Whatever noble quality you cherish and practically exemplify has power to awaken something similar to it in others. It propagates and multiplies itself, and that is its reward.
IV IN THE DELIVERANCE OF THIS CANAANITE FAMILY FROM THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DOOMED CITY WE SEE A TYPE OF GOSPEL SALVATION. The Fathers, as usual, have carried the principle to a fanciful extreme in their use of these incidents. But the general features of the analogy are too plain to be overlooked. The rescue of Rahab and her kindred is certainly dimly prophetic of the gathering of a redeemed Church out of the Gentile world; and in the "scarlet cord," the sign of the covenant and the means of deliverance, we can scarcely help seeing a hint both of the blood of the passover and the "blood of the cross." How blessed the security of those who are under the protection of that sacred sign, that "true token!" In the "day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God," with what joy will they lift up their heads, knowing that their "redemption draweth nigh. W.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Joshua . . . sent out . . .…
Jos_2:1-24
Joshua . . . sent out . . . two men to spy.
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The spies despatched
I. The position in which joshua and the Israelites were placed. It was a difficult task that had been performed by Moses; did not a harder remain? It was something to lead such a host through the wilderness. Surely more is required now the armour is to be put on, active service entered, and they brought face to face with their foes. But was not Joshua specially called to the onerous duty? Certainly he was! We have been called to a work individually, collectively. God has promised success in it; the work is that of dispossessing before possessing. We are to enjoy the companionship of God in it. Still, like Joshua, we have to depend on that word of promise. The comparison is in our favour. We have the example of all the generations from Joshua till the present. These have been strengthened by the life of Christ. In Him we have a volume of testimony confirmatory of our highest hopes.
II. That all these promises do not preclude the use of proper means. What are the feelings of a child when receiving a promise from an earthly parent? Does not the promise heighten affection, induce carefulness, and prompt to obedience? Who ever knew a child made neglectful by a well-timed promise? Is not man the same in all his relations--is he not still a man, though dealing with God? What are the effects of His promises--do they not in every way stimulate to increased affection and zeal? To expect without working is to tempt God--to work without expecting is to dishonour Him. In all that has been and is now doing in the world for God, we find the principle of co-operation prevailing. God works out His purposes by human instrumentalities--men, organised into Churches, in their collective or individual capacity, work, and God crowns with success. Man without God can do nothing. God without man does nothing, and although we have the assurance that through our instrumentality the fortresses of sin shall be vanquished, and the flag of our Master float upon the ramparts, we are bound care fully to consider our steps, and to use all our God-given powers to accomplish the object. We have our Jericho in the world. Adult world--juvenile world--spy the land, call into action all your powers; God will surely give you the land to possess.
III. The willingness on the part of the men to undertake the difficult work. They respond at once to the call of their leader, and trusting in God are honoured with success. With this spirit thoroughly in our Churches, what a large amount of work we should do. We seem to think the time for special workings and special deliverances has past. Nay, this is the time; that army on the east of Jordan is but a picture of ourselves. The work is before us. There runs a river between us and our work; yes, and we thank God for it. If we could, we would not on any account remove it. It is the right order of things. He that would do any work must cross it, and we may take it for granted the width, depth, and swiftness of the stream will be proportioned to the value of the work. Earnest Workers will cross it, manfully trusting in God, and these are the only successful workers. (J. H. Snell.)
Beginning at the right point
From military wisdom we may learn the moral wisdom of always striking first at the right point. Every thing turns upon the first stroke in many a controversy and in many an arduous battle. Why do men come home at eventide saying the day has been wasted? Because their very first step in the morning was in the wrong direction, or the very first word they spoke was the word they ought not to have uttered. With all thy getting, get understanding of how to begin life, where to strike first, what to do and when to do it, and exactly how much of it to do within given time. If you strike the wrong place you will waste your strength, and the walls of the city will remain unshaken. A blow delivered at the right place and at the right time will have tenfold effect over blows that are struck in the dark and at random: however energetic they may be, and however well delivered, they fall upon the wrong place, and the result is nothing. That is what is meant by wasted lives. Men have been industrious, painstaking, even anxious in thoughtfulness, and the night has been encroached upon so that the time of rest might be turned into a time of labour; yet all has come to nothing: no city has been taken, no position has been established, no progress has been made. Why? Simply because they did not begin at the right point. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Rahab.
An unexpected ally of the Lords host; or, Rahab and her faith
Imaginative writers have pictured Rahab as attired in gaudy costume, going about the city with her harp (Isa_23:16), and at this very time in pursuit of her evil trade. Others, following Josephus, have adopted so charitable an estimate of her profession as to suppose her to have been simply a tavern-keeper. May we not, perhaps, take a middle line, and venture to believe that one who had become a believer in the God of Israel had also, ere this, repented of and forsaken the infamous life which her title imports. She appears from the narrative to be supporting herself by her own industry, in the preparation and dyeing of flax. One thing is certain, and that is that pure and saving faith cannot exist with foul and deadly sins. In reference to Rahabs faith, observe--
I. The wonder of its existence. Here dwells an unfortunate woman. She has had no spiritual advantages.--no Sabbaths, no Scriptures, no teachers--and yet in the base purlieus of a Jericho, in the heart of that poor harlot, like a fair pearl that lies within a rough shell among the weeds and rocks at the sea bottom, there is found precious faith, faith that finds utterance in a good confession (Jos_2:11). Here is encouragement for those who are called, in the providence of God, to minister where worldliness and frivolity, and pride and bitter opposition to the truth prevail, Here, too, is encouragement for those who minister in uncouth regions, where sin and ignorance seem to shut out hope of blessing. Let missionaries and visitors in alleys and courts, in attics and cellars, which seem like nests of blasphemy and impurity, take heart. The unholy atmosphere of gin palaces, and even of houses like that in which Joshuas spies sought refuge, cannot exclude the Holy Ghost, or nullify the Gospel message.
II. Its practical operation. A poetic faith may lift its possessor to the heavens in ecstacies. A talking faith may delight the hearers with glowing descriptions of supposed experiences and imaginary prospects. But the faith that saves is known by its works. Such a faith was Rahabs. Her faith wrought with her works, and by works was her faith made perfect.
III. Its saving tendency. The characteristic of true faith is ever to tend towards salvation. Faith accepts the warnings of the Word of God as true, and leads men to flee from the wrath to come. Now we shall find this to be a marked characteristic in the faith of Rahab. It inclines her to seek salvation both for herself and for her kindred.
IV. Its rich reward. Vain are mans promises of help except God approve the pledge. The oath of the spies to deliver Rahab and her house had availed her nothing had not God Himself, by a notable miracle, confirmed their word. Joshua held himself bound by the covenant of his representatives; but what was more, the Lord accepted Rahabs faith and spared her house, or, when the walls of Jericho fell down, her house had fallen too, for it abutted on the wall. But it fell not, but stood unscathed amid the overthrow, a monument of Divine faithfulness and mercy. Nor will that faithfulness and mercy fail to save any, even the most unworthy, who has entered into the covenant of grace. Our life for yours! may every ambassador of the gospel say. If the conditions of salvation be observed, thy house and thy hope shall stand, though a thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand. (G. W. Butler, M. A.)
A parenthesis of grace
Let us look at Rahabs faith, and meditate on a few of its phases.
I. Consider the hindrances of her faith.
1. There were hindrances which arose from herself. She was the harlot Rahab. Her character was exceptionally evil. She belonged to a class than whom there are none more hardened, inaccessible, and hopeless. Moreover, she had found her calling profitable, and therefore, naturally speaking, would be the more firmly wedded to her evil ways. Moreover, Israel is coming to Jericho for the purpose of executing the Divine vengeance on the very evils of which she is guilty. The cry of the Canaanites has ascended to heaven; in long-suffering patience God has waited till now, but at last He has sent forth His hosts to consume them utterly. How much, then, was there, in herself, to keep Rahab from trust in Jehovah!
2. There were also hindrances to Rahabs faith arising from her natural friends. The example of all her neighbours would encourage her in a path of unbelief. Her faith would make her an oddity in Jericho.
3. There were hindrances to her faith arising from her natural enemies. Israel, the people of Jehovah, were arrayed against her and her people, and were even now marching onward to their destruction. The mission of Israel is not one of mercy, but of judgment. Their feet are not beautiful upon the mountains, bringing good tidings of peace. They bring no gospel to the Canaanites, but war, disaster, and death are in their invincible path. How black was the outlook for Rahab.
II. Consider the opportunity of her faith. Faith always finds, or rather God always gives to faith, an opportunity for its manifestation. As in the day of Sodoms doom, the Lord delayed till righteous Lot had escaped to Zoar, saying, I cannot do anything till thou be come thither, so now, if there is a single soul in Jericho groping after Him in the darkness of vice and heathenism, He will delay the march of His destroying hosts, to give that soul the opportunity which it requires and for which it longs. He can do nothing in judgment till that one soul in the doomed city is brought into a place of safety. Thus this pause in the Divine and just act of judgment, this parenthesis of grace, this long-suffering of God, is salvation.
III. Consider the operation of her faith. Rahab showed her faith by her works. We cannot, and do not, defend the deliberate falsehood by which she misled her fellow citizens in search of the spies; but we must remember that her whole training from childhood had been in lies, and that this was a sudden emergency. She was no well-instructed saint, walking under the light of Gods countenance, but a great sinner groping after Him. There is sufficient in her conduct to manifest a heart truly sincere and anxiously solicitous for the welfare of Gods people, willing to risk her own life to save theirs.
IV. Turn now to the confession of her faith. He that believes with the heart confesses with the mouth. All the believing add to their faith virtue, boldness in confessing the truth; all are witnesses. To the spies Rahab said, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, &c. She does not say, I think, I suppose, I fear, but I know. She believes as firmly in the promises of God as any in Israel. And as she believes in the promises of God, so she believes in the God of the promises. How clear and unmistakable is her confession of the name of Jehovah; how high, and exalted, and spiritual; how wonderful, in the mouth of one trained from infancy to worship stocks and stones, trained to think that the power of the different deities was local and circumscribed: The Lord your God, He is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath!
V. Next let us ponder the trial of her faith. Faith is always tested, that it may be manifested as Divine. Had Rahab sought to add anything to the instructions of the spies, had she consulted her own ideas as to the best means of ensuring her safety, she would have manifested her folly, and would have miserably failed. So trust in any other means than those which God has provided, trust in anything but the blood of the Lamb, is a manifestation of folly and a sure cause of failure.
VI. Consider also the solicitude of her faith. She was anxious not only about her own safety, but about that of those who were dear to her. She was not selfishly absorbed in looking after her own welfare, content if she herself escaped; but, with true affection, arranged for the rescue of her relatives. The work of Rahab, in bringing in others, is similar to that of every saved soul. After we ourselves are saved we are not to rest content; we are not to sit down in idleness and ease because all is well with us for ever. We are to bear on our hearts those who are still exposed to the Divine judgment; we are to be up and doing, instant in season and out of season, if by any means we may save some.
VII. Consider the reward of her faith. When the dread day of Jerichos judgment came, what a joy must it have been to Rahab to know that all dear to her were safe. But who can tell the rapture of those who have saved a soul from eternal death, and covered a multitude of sins? Surely such a glorious reward, such a monument of everlasting renown, is worth labouring for, worth living for, worth dying for. Rut turning again to the ease before us, why did the multitudes in Jericho thus perish without pity? Was it because the cup of their iniquity was full? Yes, truly, for they had fearfully corrupted their ways. But, while many sins characterised the Canaanites, the Holy Ghost selects one sin as emphatically that which caused their destruction. Which sin? Unbelief. That which distinguished Rahab from the rest was not superior morality, higher intelligence, a more exemplary life, a better natural disposition, but faith in God. She believed; they believed not. Because she believed, she was saved; because they believed not, they perished. Even so, many sins may characterise you, and each one is like a millstone round your neck, fitted to drag you down to endless destruction, but your great, culminating, condemning sin is unbelief (Mar_16:16). But Rahab was not only rescued from the judgment of Jericho, she was also received into the number of Gods people. Even so the sinner who believes in Jesus is not only saved from wrath to come, but is received into the Church, the house of the living God, there to be instructed more fully in the ways of God; there to learn all the lessons that the grace of God can teach; to deny ungodliness and worldly lust; to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (A. B. Mackay.)
Rahabs reasoning
The woman had an eye to see and an ear to hear. She knew better than to suppose that a nation of slaves by their own resources could have eluded all the might of Pharaoh, subsisted for forty years in the wilderness, and annihilated the forces of such renowned potentates as Sihon and Og. She was no philosopher, and could not have reasoned on the doctrine of causation, but her common sense taught her that you cannot have extraordinary effects without corresponding causes. It is one of the great weaknesses of modern unbelief that with all its pretensions to philosophy it is constantly accepting effects without an adequate cause. Jesus Christ, though He revolutionised the world, though He founded an empire to which that of the Caesars is not for a moment to be compared, though all that were about Him admitted His supernatural power and person, after all was nothing but a man. The gospel that has brought peace and joy to so many weary hearts, that has transformed the slaves of sin into children of heaven, that has turned cannibals into saints, and fashioned so many an angelic character out of the rude blocks of humanity, is but a cunningly devised fable. What contempt for such sophistries, such vain explanations of facts patent to all, would this poor woman have shown! How does she rebuke the many that keep pottering in poor natural explanations of plain supernatural facts instead of manfully admitting that it is the arm of God that has been revealed and the voice of God that has spoken. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Gradual enlightenment
If we ask, How could Rahab have such a faith and yet be a harlot? or How could she have such faith in God and yet utter that tissue of falsehoods about the spies with which she deluded the messengers of the king? we answer that light comes but gradually and slowly to persons like Rahab. The conscience is but gradually enlightened. How many men have been slaveholders after they were Christians! Worse than that, did not the godly John Newton, one of the two authors of the Olney hymns, continue for some time in the slave trade, conveying cargoes of his fellow-creatures stolen from their homes, before he awoke to a sense of its infamy? Are there no persons among us calling themselves Christians engaged in traffic that brings awful destruction to the bodies and souls of their fellow-men? That Rahab should have continued as she was after she threw in her lot with Gods people is inconceivable; but there can be no doubt how she was living when she first comes into Bible history. And as to her falsehoods, though some have excused lying when practised in order to save life, we do not vindicate her on that ground. All falsehood, especially what is spoken to those who have a right to trust us, must be offensive to the God of truth, and the nearer men get to the Divine image, through the growing closeness of their Divine fellowship, the more do they recoil from it. Rahab was yet in the outermost circle of the Church, just touching the boundary; the nearer she got to the centre the more would she recoil alike from the foulness and the falseness of her early years. And yet, though her faith may at this time have been but as a grain of mustard seed, we see two effects of it that are not to be despised. One was her protection of the Lords people, as represented by the spies; the other was her concern for her own relations. (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.)
Rahabs faith
Faith in the human heart is a Divine work and a Divine wonder. Jesus wondered when He beheld the witness of it in the message of the centurion, and in the cry of the Syro-Phoenician, and sometimes it occurs among circumstances so strange and unlikely as to compel the wonder even of our hard hearts and dull minds. The faith of Rahab is of this class--strange, unaccountable on merely natural grounds. That this plant of heavenly renown should take root and spring up in such uncongenial soil is what we do not naturally look for. Her faith reminds us of a tree we have seen in the Highlands of Scotland. At the bottom of a wild glen stood a huge boulder, which towered high above those which had toppled with it from the mountain side, and it had a strange crown. On its summit, as if rising out of the rock, grew a young tree--green, vigorous, and healthy. From its peculiar position, it attracted the notice of every passer-by; it was the only tree for miles around, and there, in that wilderness, and on that rock, it grew, planted as it were by the finger of God. Even so the faith of Rahab is a great wonder, a tree of paradise, planted by the hand of God, in the midst of a wilderness of moral and spiritual desolation.
A mixed character
They are mixed characters and mixed actions in the moral sense; and just as we may take a conglomerate mineral and single out one ingredient for remark, so we may fix our minds upon one aspect of a complex action, disregarding all other aspects for the time, with admiration or condemnation. It is what we do continually. We speak highly of an authors genius--without approval of his principles; we praise the skill of some diplomatist--whose policy we strongly condemn; we do not grudge our admiration to the powers of Napoleon--though we may believe him to have been a monster of iniquity. In a famous essay John Foster illustrates decision of character by a number of striking instances. He refers to the untameable soul of Milton as portrayed in Paradise Lost; to the sublime height to which Pompey was raised by his ambitious spirit; to the constancy of purpose with which a Spaniard pursued and at last accomplished his revenge; to the indefatigable industry with which a ruined spendthrift regained his fortune and died a miser. But none is so foolish as to accuse the essayist of commending obstinacy, ambition, revenge, or miserliness. Now, the same principle must be applied to an interpretation of Scripture. The unjust steward, e.g., was a bad man: he was selfish, unprincipled, a downright rogue. But withal he was prudent; he forecast the future; he directed his energies towards providing for it; and he succeeded. In his prudence, then, is he set forth as an example for us. (Sunday School Times.)
Our hearts did melt.--
The powers of evil in terror
I think that testimony stands yet. We, who are fighting Joshuas battle to-day, should take to heart this word that has leaked out from the headquarters of the devils army; and the word is this, that with all the devils swagger, and bravado, and bluster, he is a bigger coward than we are, and that is big enough. He is really not so bold as he is trying to pretend. He knows that the doom is coming, and Rahab is the testifier; and she ought to know: she has been near him and is intimate with the latest information on that side. I say, I think that we should all take this. It stands here. This is a bit of the Word of God that liveth and abideth for ever. And its great value to you and me who are fighting to-day in the wars of the Lord under the heavenly Joshua is that, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, the fear of us and the terror of us are working yonder before we arrive. God is making a way for His conquering purpose before we thunder at the enemys gate. Therefore let us nerve ourselves. Therefore let us be strong. Therefore do not let us be daunted by the colossal and seemingly impregnable powers of evil. There is a trembling and a quivering in the devils host. Your terror is fallen upon us. Who would think it, to read the secular press? What nonsense clever men talk about religion, as if it were a feeble kind of thing, such as they would call in Scotland a fozy turnip--a half-rotten, effete, useless thing. We are going to have reforms, and we are going to make things a great deal better, but we will have no religion. Did ever anybody hear such addle-headed talking by clever men? No religion! Oh, indeed! You are going to bow out Jesus Christ? You ought to have been born a long while before you were, if you are going to do that. You have come into the world much too late to put it right without Christ. He is here, and He means to be here, and I trust we are all with Him. Oh, what encouragement there comes to us out of this! What encouragement--that the kingdom of darkness in all its domain is tottering to its fall, and it knows it! Strange it is that we who are serving under the heavenly Joshua, and have all these things to fortify us and to infuse strength into us, are so nervous and womanish. Oh, to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, and to be strengthened by what we read here as to the condition of things in the enemys camp! They are just about to surrender if we would put on a bold front. (John McNeill.)
The Lord your God, He is God.--
Our God, God over all
I. The lord your God. I am aware that our Lord and our Saviour, and so on, are phrases that are frequently employed thoughtlessly, ignorantly, and profanely; but this does not render their value less. Whatever faith is in exercise, so that the believer can really claim his affinity, his relationship, it is most blessed so to do. Nay, more; there is no solid happiness and permanent peace for any child of Adam until that child of Adam can claim this relationship: the Lord our God. But oh! wonder, ye heavens, and be astonished, O earth, at this amazing condescension: that the great Eternal--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost--should give to His elect family each of the Persons, and all the perfections and attributes of self-existent Deity, as the Churchs portion and inheritance.
II. He is God in heaven. AS for myself, the fact that Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, is my God, makes me look up to heaven and think of heaven with the utmost confidence; aye, without a scruple; aye, upon scriptural assurance of calling it my home. Now, mark two or three things arising out of this fact that He is God in heaven above. All the records of heaven written and kept by Him; all the enjoyments of heaven bestowed, communicated, imparted, in His presence; all the inhabitants of heaven His own choice, His own redemption, His own workmanship. He is absolute Sovereign in heaven of the fixed decrees of heaven; absolute Sovereign in heaven of all the glories of heaven; and absolute Sovereign in heaven of all the inhabitants of heaven. Oh! what security is here! The Lord your God is God in heaven above.
III. He is God in earth beneath. Here we have a solution of the mystery of His providence. He is God in earth, as well as in heaven; tell Him all about it. Go with thy sorrows, thy cares, thy domestic woes, thy bodily afflictions, thy circumstantial trials, thy matters of business, thy little things as well as thy great things; for He is God in earth. The Lord your God is God in earth beneath. Oh! I had saved myself a thousand sorrows if I had always lived upon this principle. I had saved myself a thousand woes, if I had lived as if there was a God on earth. (J. Irons.)
Bind this line of scarlet thread in the window.--
The scarlet line
In Scripture we find the blessing of God and the curse of God concentrated not only in individual souls, but also in cities. Thus Jerusalem is constantly set forth in Scripture as the city of blessing (Psa_48:1-3; Psa_50:2). On the other hand, Jericho is the city of the curse (Jos_6:17). These two cities, then, are evidently representative cities. Jerusalem, the city of blessing, represents the Church of God, destined to eternal life. Jericho, the city of the curse, represents the world, alienated from God, and destined to destruction. And then what will Rahab represent but those who are gathered out of the one into the other, not on account of anything good in themselves, any natural excellencies or attainments, but by the grace of God, and according to His good pleasure. And specially does she, herself a Gentile, seem to represent those of the Gentiles who are brought to God. Rahabs faith showed itself in this, that she recognised God. She looked above second causes. It was not Israels power and prowess, but Gods hand, which she saw (Jos_2:9-11). All this throws much light on the nature of true faith. It shows us, first, that living faith carries us straight to God. Our hearts are very prone to get entangled in second causes--to look at the hand of man, and forget the hand of God. The language of faith is, It is the Lord. It elevates the heart above second causes, and enables it to rest, not, it may be, without many struggles, on the will an arm of God. Again, we see in this history that faith is the principle of a new life. Rahabs life had been an unhallowed one, and she had sunk lower than many others in Jericho. But now through Divine grace she rises higher than all (Heb_11:31). And faith is always the same; the same in its object, which is God; the same in its principle, which is His grace; the same in its result, which is holiness of life. Rahab believed in the approaching doom of Jericho; she felt that its days were numbered. The true Christian now believes that a more awful and universal judgment is coming upon the world, and he flees from the wrath to come--flees to the only Refuge from the storm. But Rahab went further. She wished to have some assurance that her life, and the life of her family, would be spared. It is not wonderful that she should have desired this token; and we may well imagine what comfort she must have felt when the scarlet line was floating in the air at her window. Very solemn thoughts must often have weighed upon her heart--thoughts of the awful destruction which awaited her fellow-townsmen; but she felt no anxiety about herself and family. The scarlet line silenced every fear. And if it was natural in Rahab to desire a token of her safety, is it not even more natural in the true Christian to desire it? And one there is which is granted sooner or later to those who walk with God. It is not always given at once; often it grows up by degrees. But yet, sooner or later, it is given. The blood of Jesus secures pardon, and also produces assurance. But notice that there is a wide difference between the two. Forgiveness is one thing; the knowledge of forgiveness is another. Forgiveness of sin we must have, to be Christians. Assurance is a privilege which Christians should seek, and seek until they find, and then watch, that they may retain it. If, then, you would have the scarlet line floating at the window of your hearts, you must trust simply in Christ. This of itself is enough to bring, and does often bring, assurance; but if not, endeavour to walk with God. Be diligent in doing His will and work, and perhaps God will meet you then, and will crown some act of faith and self-denial and devoted service with a true token, a scarlet line of His assurance-love. Having proceeded thus far with the history of Rahab, we must say a few words about its conclusion. What a difference that little piece of scarlet line made! It was not a mere token arranged between man and man; it was sanctioned in heaven. Gods eye as well as mans was fixed upon the scarlet line, and Rahab was protected. And if that scarlet line made so great a difference in her case, and secured her protection, oh, how much more shall the blood of Christ secure that of the true Christian I Is it sprinkled upon your heart? Does Gods eye see it there? Then all your sins, however many, are forgiven; all your enemies, however strong, will be overcome. But there is still one other point to be noticed in Rahabs history. You will find it stated in Jos_6:25, where it says, She dwelleth in Israel unto this day. So that from that time forth, though she had been a sinner of the Gentiles, she was put among Gods children, reckoned as one of His own Israel; and even, we learn from Mat_1:5, so honoured of God as to be one of the line from whom Jesus was descended. And do we not learn from this how completely the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin? how real a thing is the forgiveness of sins? how great and entire is the change which the grace of God makes in the heart? (G. Wagner.)
Rahab saved
I. The sovereign mercy of God was magnified in the previous character and position of the individual to whom it was vouchsafed.
II. The oneness, the primeval, constant, and continued identity of the way of salvation, from the blood that flowed upon Abels altar, and I doubt not upon Adams also, to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. By that line--as with Rahab, so with the Church--the messengers that brought it to her and taught it to her had already escaped; it had borne their weight, proved its efficacy; and the Church knows it to be strong enough still. She knows it to be the cable-line which rivets her to the anchor of hope, sure and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil. Ah! who that has ever tried it, who that has ever fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before him, hath not found the promise fulfilled in his happy experience--I will draw them with the cords of love, with the bands of a man! Blessed Jesus! Thou art this scarlet line, dyed with the blood of propitiating mercy.
III. Another exemplary feature in the act of Rahabs faith is its great simplicity. What could be simpler than tying a scarlet line in a window? Had the gospel assumed a more scientific and imposing form--had its principles been more elaborate and philosophical had it required years of study to comprehend it, and thereby attached some literary reputation to the ultimate adept in it--had it been like the rabinnical lore of the Hebrews, or the mythological mysteries of the Greeks, beyond the reach of the vulgar, and a consequent badge of distinction to the initiated--had its prophet required us to do some great thing--were its peculiar privileges obtainable only by the pomp of a ritual, the costliness of sacrifice, or the toil of pilgrimage--then the evangelical Sion had never been destitute of its thousands of devotees and ten thousands of disciples; but when it appears in the guise of a system of which a child can appreciate the beauty, and which only requires the spirit of a child to learn and entertain it--when the wayfaring man, as he runs upon his business may read it--when its elastic principles expand their comprehensive arms to the embrace of all men, and like the outstretched arms of its crucified Author upon the Cross seem to offer mercy on the right hand and on the left--when its whole system is summed up in a single sentence, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved--then the world turns its back upon the Church, is ashamed of the fellowship of children and vulgar and illiterate people, the simplicity of the truth is mistaken for vulgarity, and the house of God is eschewed and avoided, because, instead of the sumptuous drapery and tinselled garniture of the noble, the poetical, the dramatic, the speculative, and the vain, its only ornament and ensign is the Cross of Christ--its sole phylactery is the scarlet line in the window.
IV. Rahabs act of faith extended a blessing, as every act of faith does, to the whole family. She gathered her father and mother and brethren and all her kindred into her house; and the emblem in the window spared them all. Yet I suppose it will scarcely be contended that it was the bit of thread that saved them, rather than the covenant of which that thread was the sign. But just as idle is the theory that the sacrament is salvation, instead of the sign of the Saviour; as inaccurate is the impression that faith itself saves, and not His blood and righteousness which faith appropriates. Why, there is no more saving merit in faith than there is in works--not a jot. I am not saved because I believe, but I am saved by Him in whom I believe. There is all the worlds difference between those propositions. (J. B. Owen, M. A.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v9 CHAPTER XVIII. THE STRATAGEM OF THE GIBEONITES. Joshua Ch.…
CHAPTER XVIII. THE STRATAGEM OF THE GIBEONITES. Joshua Ch. 9.
WE now resume the thread of the story interrupted by the narrative of the transaction at Ebal and Gerizim. We learn from the testimony of Rahab of Jericho, as uttered to the spies (Jos_2:9), that the terror of Israel had caused the hearts of the inhabitants of the country to faint, and that the fame of all that had been done for them by Jehovah had quite paralysed them. But when the host of Israel actually entered Western Palestine, and began their conquest by the destruction of Jericho and Ai, the inhabitants seem to have plucked up courage, and begun to consider what could be done in self-defence. It is very probable that they found considerable encouragement from what happened at Ai. There it had been seen that Israel was not invincible. Insignificant though Ai was, its people had been able to repel with great success the first attack of the Israelites. And though they had been destroyed in the second, this was achieved only by the combined influence of stratagem and an overwhelming force. The supernatural power under which Jericho had fallen had not been shown at Ai, and might not come into play in the future. There was therefore yet a chance for the Canaanites, if they should combine and act in concert. Steps were therefore taken for such a union. The kings or chiefs who occupied the hills, or central plateau of the country; those of the valleys, interspersed between the mountains; and those occupying the Shephelah, or maritime plains of Philistia, Sharon, and Phoenicia; - all the nations comprised under the well-known names Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, entered into a league of defence, and prepared to confront Joshua and the Israelites with a determined resistance. The news of the confederacy would bring a tremor over some timid hearts in the camp of Israel, but would cause no serious anxiety to Joshua and all the men of faith, who, like him, felt assured that the Lord was with them.
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There was one native community, however, that determined to follow another course. The Gibeonites were a branch of the Hivite race, inhabiting the town of Gibeon, and some other prominent towns in the great central plateau of the country. Gibeon is undoubtedly represented now by the village of El Jib, situated about half-way between Jerusalem and Bethel, four or five miles distant from each. Dr. Robertson describes El Jib as situated in a beautiful plain of considerable extent, on an oblong hill or ridge, composed of layers of limestone, rising as if by regular steps out of the plain. In the days of Joshua, it was a place of great importance, a royal city, and it had under its jurisdiction the towns of Beeroth, Chephirah, and Kirjath-jearim. Its inhabitants were in no humour to fight with Joshua. They had faith enough to understand what would be the inevitable result of that, and therein they were right, and the confederate kings were wrong. On the other hand, they were not prepared to make an honest and unconditional surrender. They probably knew that the orders under which Joshua was acting called on him to destroy all the people of the land, and they had no assurance that, being of the doomed nations, open submission would secure their lives. They resolved therefore to proceed by stratagem. A detachment was appointed to wait on Joshua at his camp at Gilgal, as if they were ambassadors from a distant country, and represent to him in pious tone that they had come from afar, "because of the name of the Lord his God, having heard the fame of Him, and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites that were beyond Jordan, to Sihon King of Heshbon, and to Og King of Bashan." They came with the desire to show respect to the people whose God was so powerful, and to be allowed, though far off, to live at peace with them. Then they presented their credentials, as it were; showing the old sacks, the shrivelled bottles, the musty bread they had brought with them, and the clouts upon their feet and ragged garments which attested the great length of their journey. ''Those old Gibeonites," says the "Land and the Book," "did indeed 'work wilily' with Joshua. Nothing could be better calculated to deceive than their devices. I have often thought that their ambassadors, as described in the narrative, furnish one of the finest groups imaginable for a painter; with their old sacks on their poor asses; their wine bottles of goat skin, patched and shrivelled up in the sun, old, rent, and bound up; old shoes and clouted upon their feet; old garments, ragged and bedraggled, with bread dry and mouldy, - the very picture of an over-travelled and wearied caravan from a great distance. It is impossible to transfer to paper the ludicrous appearance of such a company. No wonder that, having tasted their mouldy victuals, and looked upon their soiled and travel-worn costume, Joshua and the elders were deceived, especially as they did not wait to ask counsel at the mouth of the Lord."
It was just the completeness of the disguise that threw Joshua and the men of Israel off their guard. For at first the idea did occur to them that the strangers might be neighbours, and therefore of the nations that they were called on to destroy. On closer inspection, however, that seemed out of the question; indeed, the supposition was so utterly preposterous that it was deemed hardly fitting to bring the matter before the Lord. It is as plain as day, Joshua and the elders would reason; the evidence of what they say is beyond question; theirs is no case of perplexity requiring us to go to God; we may surely exercise our common sense and make a league with these far-travelled men. In a short time they will be back in their own country, far beyond our boundaries, and the only effect of their visit and of our league will be a fresh tribute to the name and power of Jehovah, a fresh testimony to His presence with us, and a fresh pledge that He will bear us to success in the enterprise in which we are engaged. And when the confederate kings that are now leaguing against us hear that this distant people have come to us to propitiate our favour, they will be struck by a new terror and will be the more easily subdued.
We see in all this the simple, unsuspecting spirit of men who have spent their lives in the wilderness. As for the Gibeonites, there was a combination of good and bad in their spirit. They remind us in a measure of the woman with the issue of blood. In her there was certainly faith; but along with the faith, extraordinary superstition. In the Gibeonites there was faith - a belief that Israel was under the protection of a remarkable Divine power, under a Divine promise the truth of which even Balaam had very recently acknowledged - "I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee." Undoubtedly a religious feeling lay at the bottom of the proceeding. A great divine Being was seen to be involved, who was on Israel's side and against his enemies, and it would not do to trifle with Him. But in their way of securing exemption from the effects of His displeasure, the grossest superstition appeared. They were to gain their object by deceit. They were to get Him to favour them above their neighbours through an elaborate system of fraud, through a tissue of lies, through unmitigated falsehood. What a strange conception of God! What blindness to His highest attributes, - His holiness and His truth! What amazing infatuation to suppose that they could secure His blessing through acts fitted to provoke His utmost displeasure! What a miserable God men fashion to themselves when they simply invest Him with almighty power, or perhaps suppose Him to be moved by whims and prejudices and favouritisms like frail man, but omit to clothe Him with His highest glory - forget that "justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne, mercy and truth go before His face."
The conduct of the men was the more strange that it was impossible that they should not be speedily found out. And it was quite possible that, when found out, they would be dealt with more severely than ever. True, indeed, Joshua, when he did detect their plot, did not so act; he acted on a high, perhaps a mistaken sense of honour; but they had no right to count on that. Timidity is a poor adviser. All it can do is to turn the next corner. True faith, resting on eternal truth, acts for eternity. True faith is often blind, but in the deepest darkness it knows that it is on the right track, and under the guidance of the eternal light. Blind faith is very different from blind fear. Faith holds on in full expectation of deliverance; fear trembles and stumbles, in perpetual dread of exposure and humiliation.
"A lying tongue is but for a moment;" and the Gibeonite fraud lived just three days. Then it was discovered by Joshua that the Gibeonites lived in the immediate neighbourhood. But before that, he had made peace with them, and entered into a league to let them live, and the princes of the congregation had confirmed it by an oath. Nothing could have been more provoking than to discover that they had been duped and swindled. It is always a very bitter experience to find that our confidence has been misplaced. Men whom we thought trustworthy, and whom we commended to others as trustworthy, have turned out knaves. It is hard to bear, for we have committed ourselves to our friends in the matter. What would Joshua and his people think now of the supposed tribute to the God of Israel, and the impression expected to be made on the confederate kings? Before all the inhabitants of Canaan he and his people were befooled, humiliated. Not a man in all the country but would be making merry at their expense. Yet even that was not the worst of it. They had been guilty of over-confidence, and of neglect of means that were in their hands; they had neglected to get counsel of their God. They had trusted in their own hearts when they ought to have sought guidance from above. The trouble was their own creation; they were alone to blame.
We cannot but respect the way in which Joshua and the princes acted when they discovered the fraud. It might have been competent to repudiate the league on the ground that it was agreed to by them under false pretences. It was made on the representation that the Gibeonites had come from a far country, and when that was seen to be utterly untrue there would have been an honourable ground for repudiating the transaction. But Joshua did not avail himself of this loophole. He and the princes had such respect for the sanctity of an oath that, even when they discovered that they had been grossly deceived, they would not resile from it. It seems to have been the princes that took up this ground, and they did so in opposition to the congregation (Jos_9:18). The fact that the name of the Lord God of Israel had been invoked in the oath sworn to the Gibeonites constrained them to abide by the transaction. It is a good sign of their spirit that they were so jealous of the honour of their God, and of the sanctity of their oath. They came out of the transaction with more honour than we should have expected. Personal interests were subordinated to higher considerations. They carried out that great canon of true religion - first and foremost giving ''glory to God in the highest."
But though the lives of the Gibeonites were spared, that was all. They were to be reduced to a kind of slavery - to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and the altar of God." The expression has become a household word to denote a life of drudgery, but perhaps we fail to recognise the full significance of the terms. "I was forcibly reminded of this," says the author of ''The Land and the Book," "by long files of women and children (near El Jib) carrying on their heads heavy bundles of wood. . . . It is the severest kind of drudgery, and my compassion has often been enhsted in behalf of the poor women and children, who daily bring loads of wood to Jerusalem from these very mountains of the Gibeonites. To carry water, also, is very laborious and fatiguing. The fountains are far off, in deep wadies with steep banks, and a thousand times have I seen the feeble and the young staggering up long and weary ways with large jars of water on their heads. It is the work of slaves, and of the very poor, whose condition is still worse. Among the pathetic lamentations of Jeremiah there is nothing more affecting than this: 'They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood' (Lam_5:13). Grinding at the hand-mill is a low, menial work, assigned to female slaves, and therefore utterly humiliating to the young men of Israel. And the delicate children of Zion falling under the loads of hard, rough wood, along the mountain paths! Alas! 'for these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.'"
Respecting the after history of Gibeon and the Gibeonites we find some notices in the Old Testament, but none in the New. At one time there was a sanctuary at Gibeon, even after the ark had been removed to Mount Zion; for it was at Gibeon that Solomon offered his great sacrifice of a thousand burnt offerings, and had that remarkable dream in which, in reply to the Divine offer of a choice of gifts, he chose wisdom in preference to any other (1Ki_3:4-5). But the most remarkable reappearance of the Gibeonites in history is in the reigns of Saul and David. For some unknown reason, and probably quite unjustly, Saul had put some of them to death. And in the reign of David, probably the early part of it, when a succession of famines desolated the land, and inquiry was made as to the cause, the reply of the oracle was: "It is for Saul and his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites." And it was to avenge this unjust slaughter that seven descendants of Saul were put to death, on that occasion when Rizpah, the mother of two of them, showed such remarkable affection by guarding their dead bodies from the beasts and birds of prey. It is possible that even after the Babylonian captivity some Gibeonites survived under their old name, because it is said in Nehemiah that among the others who repaired the wall of Jerusalem were "Melatiah the Gibeonite, and Jadon the Meronothite, the men of Gibeon, and of Mizpah" (Neh_3:7). Only it is uncertain whether Melatiah was of the old Gibeonite stock, or an Israelite who had Gibeon for his city. While the old Gibeonites did survive they seem to have had a miserable lot, and the question might have been often asked by them - Did our fraud bring us any real good? Is life worth living?
Does anything resembling this fraud of the Gibeonites ever take place among ourselves? In answer, let us ask first of all, what is the meaning of pious frauds? Are they not transactions where fraud is resorted to in order to accomplish what are supposed to be religious ends? Granting that the fraud of the Gibeonites was not for a religious but for a secular object - their deliverance from the sword of Joshua - still they professed, in practising it, to be doing honour to God. It is the part of superstition at once to lower the intellectual and the moral attributes of God. It often represents that the most frivolous acts, the uttering of mysterious words, or the performance of senseless acts have such a power over God as to bring about certain desired results. More frequently it holds that cruelty, falsehood, injustice, and other crimes, if brought to bear on religious or ecclesiastical ends, are pleasing in God's sight. Is there anything more truly odious than this severance of religion from morality and humanity, - this representation that fraud and other immoral acts have value before God? How can anything be a real religious gain to a man, how can it be otherwise than disastrous in the last degree, if it develops a fraudulent spirit, if it perverts his moral nature, if it deepens and intensifies the moral disorder of his heart? If men saw "The beauty of holiness," "the beauty of the Lord," they could never bring their minds to such miserable distortions. It is pure blasphemy to suppose that God could thus demean Himself. It is self-degradation to imagine that anything that can be gained by oneself through such means, could make up for what is lost, or for the guilt incurred by such wickedness.
And this suggests a wider thought - the fearful miscalculation men make whensoever they resort to fraud in the hope of reaping benefit by means of it. Yet what practice is more common? The question is, Does it really pay? Does it pay, for instance, to cheat at cards? Have we not seen recently what swift and terrible retribution that may bring, making us feel for the culprit as we might have felt for Cain. Does it pay the merchant to cheat as to the quality of his goods? Does it not leak out that he is not to be trusted, and does not that suspicion lose more to him in the long run than it gains? Does it pay the preacher to preach another man's sermon as his own? Or, to vary the illustration? When one has entrapped a maiden under false promises, and then forsakes her; or when he conceals the fact that he is already married to another; or when he controls himself for a time, to conceal from her his ill temper, or his profligate habits, or his thirst for strong drink, does it pay in the end? The question is not, Does he succeed in his immediate object? but, How does the matter end? Is it a comfortable thought to any man that he has broken a trustful heart, that he has brought misery to a happy home, that he has filled some one's life with lamentation and mourning and woe? We are not thinking only of the future life, when so many wrongs will be brought to light, and so many men and women will have to curse the infatuation that made fraud their friend and evil their good. We think of the present happiness of those who live in an atmosphere of fraud, and worship daily at its shrine. Can such disordered souls know aught of real peace and solid joy? In the case of some of them, are there not occasional moments of sober feeling, when they think what their life was given them for, and contrast their selfish and heartless devices with the career of those who deal truly and live to do good? Bitter, very bitter is the feeling which the contrast raises. It is bitter to think how unfit one is for the society of honest men; how the master one is serving is the father of lies; and how, even when the master does grant one a momentary success, it is at the sacrifice of all selfrespect and conscious purity, and with a dark foreboding of wrath in the life to come.
All Eastern nations get the character of being deceitful; but indeed the weed may be said to flourish in every soil where it has not been rooted out by living Christianity. But if it be peculiarly characteristic of Eastern nations, is it not remarkable how constantly it is rebuked in the Bible, even though that book sprang from an Eastern soil? No doubt the record of the Bible abounds with instances of deceit, but its voice is always against them. And its instances are always instructive. Satan gained nothing by deceiving our first parents. Jacob was well punished for deceiving Isaac. David's misleading of the high priest when he fled from Saul involved ultimately the slaughter of the whole priestly household. Ananias and Sapphira had an awful experience when they lied unto the Holy Ghost. All through the Bible it is seen that lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they that deal truly are His delight. And when our blessed Lord comes to show us the perfect life, how free He is from the slightest taint or vestige of deceit! How beautifully transparent is His whole life and character! No little child with his honest smile and open face was ever more guileless. In the light of that perfect example, who among us does not blush for our errors - for our many endeavours to conceal what we have done, to appear better than we were, to seem to be pleasing God when we were pleasing ourselves, or to be aiming at God's glory when we were really consulting for our own interests? Is it possible for us ever to be worthy of such a Lord? First, surely, we must go to His cross, and, bewailing all our unworthiness, seek acceptance through His finished work. And then draw from His fulness, even grace for grace; obtain through the indwelling of His Spirit that elixir of life which will send a purer life-blood through our souls, and assimilate us to Him of whom His faithful apostle wrote: "He did not sin, neither was guile found in His mouth."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 8, 14, 22 Jos_2:1. Joshua sent] Or, as in the margin, had…
THE MISSION OF THE TWO SPIES
CRITICAL NOTES.—
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Jos_2:1. Joshua sent] Or, as in the margin, had sent. It is probable that the spies had left the camp for Jericho one or two days before the giving of the two addresses by Joshua, which are recorded in chap. 1. Out of Shittim] Called in Num_33:49, Abel Shittim. The last camping-ground of the Israelites in connection with their nomadic life, and the scene of their sin with Moab. (Cf. Numbers 25.)
Jos_2:4. Hid them] “Heb. ‘hid him,’ i.e. each one of them; implying, probably, that she hid them separately, at some distance from each other” (Bush).
Jos_2:5. The time of shutting the gate] This was at sunset. The absence of artificial light would render this precaution necessary, especially in a time of war. When it was dark] As it grew dusk (De Wette). The evening twilight in the East is of very short duration.
Jos_2:6. Stalks of flax] “Flax of the word, that is, undressed flax, or flax with its ligneous parts” (Kitto).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_2:1-7
EMERGENCIES IN THE LIFE OF PIETY
1. Here was an emergency to Joshua and all the people. They were on the eve of a bloody and terrible war. Omnipotence and Omniscience had guaranteed success; how far were jealous precautions and earnest efforts on the part of men to be coupled with the promised help of God? Joshua had to choose between idle trust and active co-operation.
2. Equally eventful is this same period to Rahab. Her newly found faith in God was tried hard in its very beginnings. She had to choose between her country and her newly discovered God; she chose God, and chose rightly. She had also to choose between telling a lie and giving up the spies; she chose the lie, and thus sinned. We see here, faith working to ensure a victory which God has already promised; faith choosing between a country on the one hand, and God on the other; and faith mixed with sin, and God graciously over-ruling the sin for the good of men.
I. The relation between man’s efforts and God’s guarantees. “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you,” said God to His servant Joshua, and immediately after Joshua sent out the two spies, saying, “Go, view the land, even Jericho.” The spies were sent out as a special precautionary measure. They were thoroughly to acquaint themselves with Jericho; its situation, its approaches, its surroundings, its fortifications, its weak places, the tone of the people—whether they were confident or, as we should say, demoralised by fear; all these things, and more as they might be able, these men were to spy out. Here was as much care as though all things depended on Joshua. Would not the Divine omniscience do the spying, and omnipotence secure the victory already guaranteed? As it proved, the work of the spies had nothing to do with the victory; it was in no way accessory to triumph. This was peculiarly God’s battle, in which for wise purposes He seemed to be saying, “The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” Yet God manifestly approves the sending of the spies, giving the whole mission the stamp of His approval in the salvation of Rahab, and in the commendation of her faith in the N. T.
1. God’s help was never intended to make us idle. The promises are not so many arm-chairs in which we may quietly ensconce ourselves, and letting ecstasy take the place of service, cry out in lazy rapture,
“My willing soul would stay
In such a frame as this,
And sit and sing herself away
To everlasting bliss;”
neither are they couches on which we may recline, softly chanting about
“that sweet repose.
Which none but he that feels it knows;”
a truth which however happy as it concerns the world in general, would, in such an application of it, be simply wickedness in the lips of the singer. The promises of the Bible have sometimes been compared to golden stones with which God has paved for His children a highway to heaven. Let us rather say, God has given them to us, that we may pave with them this firm and beautiful way; but that unless each one of them is laid and imbedded in active service and holy obedience, none will be firm; they will simply precipitate us into the Slough of Despond, or, if not, they ought to, lest like Ignorance we presently find that even from the gate of heaven there is a by-way to hell. The promises have been likened to a boat in which God’s children ride to their desired haven; yet are there times when we must row hard to keep the head of the boat to sea, lest the waves prevail and swamp us, and we perish. If we would know the true value of God’s assurances, it must be by using them for something better than idleness.
2. God’s help should not only mean no less work; it should mean more work. It is because the end is guaranteed that we should work cheerfully and strive manfully. Is not this what fervent John intended, when he said, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith”? How some of the old heathen, whose deeds have been sung in the Iliad and Æueid, used to offer their sacrifices, pour their libations, and then fight! How some believers in fate have striven on in life’s battle, just because of faith in an idea, like the last Napoleon, who was always “accomplishing his destiny.” Oh, how we ought to fight, who have for a faith and a guarantee the many and beautiful words of the Scriptures from the “God that that cannot lie,” and “who made the worlds.” How beautifully significant is Paul’s phrase, “Fight the good fight of faith;” that is just why we should fight—the issue is guaranteed, and the very battle is a faith. (a) With faith in God, we should go into every conflict zealously. (b) It should be just the same in our temporary defeats; we should look on them as only temporary. What led David and Peter back into the way of truth, but faith? there was faith in forgiveness, in God’s love, and the Saviour’s tenderness; in help for future. (c) No true Christian should complain, because life will have to be like this to the very end. The inheritance to all of us is on the other side of the river; our strife is all on this side, and it will last all the time we are here. The long conflict is meant to develop manhood and womanhood in ourselves, as well as to inspire it in others. The life of an infant in heaven, saved ere it fell, will be beautiful; the life of the aged saint, made strong by many a conflict, seamed it may be by not a few scars, but graced withal by numerous victories, will be far nobler. The penitent thief’s life above is doubtless glorious, but that of Paul must be incomparably more so.
3. The assurances of victory given us by God demand not only our active efforts, but our caution and prudence. Promise does not free us from work, neither does it absolve us from the consequences of indiscretion. The late Mr. Binney once said, “If the twelve apostles were walking on a railway when a train was rushing along, it would go over them, if they did not get out of the way, and the whole twelve apostles would be crushed to atoms. God would not interfere.” Certainly God would not; such interference would be a miracle to save careless men from their folly; it would put a premium on imprudence, it would make law uncertain, not only for destruction, but for protection, and it would make carelessness the best form of prayer out. It is very instructive to hear God say, “I will not fail thee,” then to see Joshua turn away and command the spies to “Go, view the land,” and finally to see God stamp this mission with His manifest approval. To some people zeal is everything, and prudence is nowhere. They seem to think that Zeal is the very chief among the elect angels of the Almighty, sitting on His right hand, and close to His throne, whenever found sitting at all; and that Prudence, if in heaven, can only have a mission in keeping the most remote gate of the city, so that none but zealots may he suffered to enter. These good people make Zeal not only the chief, but almost the sum of the graces; Prudence is a stranger and a foreigner in the land—a mere Gibeonite, fit for nothing better than to be “a hewer of wood, and a drawer of water” on behalf of the disciples of Zeal. Such is not God’s way, and such is not the spirit of the Saviour. “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently.” is a word embodied with marvellous emphasis in the life of the Messiah. Christ’s true followers must have not only the zeal which consumes, but the prudence which is wise. No man has any commission for abolishing all but his own pet graces; we are to be Christians all round and all through, “transformed into the image of His Son.”
II. The relation of patriotism to piety. This woman had to choose between her country and her God, and she chose to put the claims of the King of kings before those of her sovereign. She was no traitor, who sold her country for considerations which were mean and paltry. True, she stipulated for the safety of her family, but even this could only spring from faith in God. This conclusion was right; but the case must be taken on its own merits: the N. T. does not speak one way or the other about the character of her works; it merely commends her faith because that was not inactive. God’s claims must come before those of earthly monarchs. Would not this justify the claims of Rome, which are based on the Vatican Decrees? Ought not those of our soldiers and sailors who are Roman Catholics to desert to the enemy in a time of war, if the infallible (?) Pope bade them? The whole question lies in another—Is the voice of Rome the voice of God? A history of pontifical crime and sensuality, stretching through many generations, is answer enough to any who are not devotees. The simple truth as to Rome is this—it is a great mixed system, having a single name; the system is political and spiritual, but the name is wholly religious; its deepest political schemes are baptized with the name of God, and backed, by the claims of God. It is on this ground that it claims the right to subvert the allegiance of the Roman Catholic subjects of any sovereign on earth. English dignitaries of that Church tell us that this will never be done. History answers, “It often has been done, and still oftener attempted; and this was so many generations before the decrees were defined and declared; the war stirred up between France and Spain in 1556, Black Bartholomew, the Spanish Armada, the Oath of Allegiance which followed the Gunpowder Plot, and not a few other instances bearing prominent official witness.” The recent case of the Roman Catholic dignitaries is this—“Even if the Vatican Decrees mean what they have been said to, it is impossible that Rome should ever interfere to require English soldiers or sailors to desert the cause of their country;” that is to say, “Rome having done this kind of thing for many generations, when she had no decrees to declare her voice to be the voice of God, cannot POSSIBLY do it now that the process is made comparatively easy since the passing of these decrees.” I must grieve all lovers of freedom to say it, but surely when a church with a history like this claims liberty to teach high treason in every nation in the world—to teach it to the uneducated and superstitious, backed by all their hopes of heaven and fears of hell—the time has come to insist on so much of civil disability to Roman Catholics as shall ensure the safety of the state in which they may happen to live. This is not a question merely of tolerating a religion; it is a question of tolerating an open claim of right, made by the largest and most compact society in the world, to establish an imperium in imperio throughout the earth. That the claim is made in the name of religion is perfectly true; but when religion condescends to become an instrument of grave political disturbance, men must treat with the facts, and cannot afford to be duped by a label.
III. The relation of human sin to Divine triumphs. About this woman’s lie there can be no doubt whatever; it was as palpable a lie as human lips ever uttered. About the universal condemnation in the Scriptures of all lying there can be no doubt; no temptation, no danger, no good aims ever justify an untruth; to do evil that good may come is always sin in the judgment of the Bible. The N. T., however, absolutely commends the faith of Rahab, and the fact that her faith had works is the very point of the commendation given by the apostle James. The fact that she worked as well as believed was good; the manner of her working in this matter was indisputably wicked. The austere morality of James is alone sufficient to tell us that he could give no approval to that. The question has often come up, could the woman have protected the spies in any other way? Probably not; it is enough that God could have protected them. The woman evidently did not think the lie very wrong, and God will probably judge her, as others, in light of the word, “To whom much is given,” etc. A great part of the difficulty about this case lies in assuming that this woman should at once be an angel the moment she begins to be a saint. Her faith was mixed with much sin, but was good as far as it went. One difficulty remains; God seems to have suffered both a lie and a liar to be the means of sheltering His people, and that when they were engaged in a work intimately connected with the fulfilment of His covenant. God often takes sin in its own snares, and that is what He is doing here. The Canaanites, though children of Noah, and warned by many judgments, had chosen a lie for their very religion. As this woman, who had learned both her morality and religion of the Canaanites, turns to desert them, she fires this lie like a Parthian shot, which they themselves had taught her how to aim, and God suffers the lie to wound those whom the woman meant to wound, and to rescue those whom she sought to defend. “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee;” and why should it not? Blessed be God, who condescends to overrule even sin for good. So God suffered Jacob’s lie to work out good; so He permitted the malice and lying of scribes and Pharisees to work out the greatest of all mercies, the cross of Christ. And this principle is in the gospel of nature, and belongs to all men, Christians or not. The atheist should rid it from his book, ere he condemns it in ours. Drunkenness is seen working its own cure, sensuality its own shame, war its own healing, while even such outrages as that of the persecution of the Huguenots laid the foundation of much of the commercial prosperity of our land. Oh, there is hope for sinners, when God by sin overthrows sin. Just as He set Midianites against Midianites, and Philistines to beat down Philistines in some of the later battles of Israel, so He arrays sin against itself. With Christ for us, and sin working its own ruin, who may not dare to hope?
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos_2:1-7.—SECRET SERVICE.
I. The secret service of governments. The sum yearly voted for this in our national estimates. The necessity for it born of human deception and sin.
II. The secret service of the world. Secret pursuit of sinful pleasures. Secret enmity against, and watching of Christians.
III. The secret service of the Church. The spying out of the world’s most secret pleasures. None should go, but such as are wisely chosen and sent. It is always a service of danger. It is ever tending to the light. If necessary at all, the sooner it is over the better.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 Jos 2:1-18.
Jos 2:1-18.
Spies are a part of the unhappy machinery of war. They are counted as necessary as the general, or as the boy who blows the bugle. It is with an army and in a war that Joshua is now to display Jehovah, and he must employ all the arts of the soldier. It would have gone hard with the two spies if they had not been so strangely housed. Rahab took her own life in her hands not to endanger theirs, She was artful, she was brave, she was noble, she was mean; she received them at her door in peace, she let them out at her window by stealth; she sent her own townsmen an idle chase by the river, and she sent the strangers in safety to the hills, just because she knew that the men were Israel’s spies.
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I. Rahab’s words (Jos 2:9-11) let us know the feelings with which the Canaanites regarded Israel in the wilderness. The fame and the fear of Israel’s name had preceded the people like the wind travelling before a thunderstorm. It was a thing of mystery—a nation that fed from the night and drank from the stones; it was a phantom host that fought no one knew how. Still Jericho was determined to resist. It might be in vain, but its king would try his sword against this spiritual thing that called itself the people of Jehovah. There was a different spirit in one breast in Jericho, and it was the breast of a woman. As sailors have found a mere timber of a ship hopelessly but faithfully pointing to the northern star, so from amidst the fragments of what was once a woman’s life, as they drifted in the dusk along the streets of Jericho, Rahab’s heart was trembling away towards the star that should come out of Jacob and the sceptre that would rise out of Israel. There is a lesson for us here. Surely there is a Diviner duty for us than, like the wind, to chase the withered leaves of a blighted life along our streets, if only far enough from our church doors. Surely there is manlier work for men than to trample on the faded flowers of the forest.
II. Thus from an unlikely quarter we are taught of the power of faith. In the affray of war Rahab sat up there with her hope, trimmed to burning like a lamp, as unafraid as the man in the tower when the storm is round the lighthouse.
III. We have also explained to us the nature of faith. Rahab did not know what the word "faith" meant, but the thing itself was in her heart, and it found expression, not in words, but in works.
Thus it befell the spies at Jericho; and after three days in the mountains, they took their report to Joshua. He heard what they had to say, and in the night the tribes of Israel struck their tents, and in the dawn of the morning the tall grey cloud above the ark of Jehovah was feeling its way down to the fords of the Jordan.
Armstrong Black, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. i., p. 153.
References: Jos 1:10-15.—Parker, vol. v., p. 61. Jos 1:16, Jos 1:18.—Ibid., p. 71. Jos 2:11.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 385; Parker, vol. v., p. 273. Jos 2:21.—J. M. Ashley, Church Sermons, vol. ii., p. 169; Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 109; W. Meller, Village Homilies, p. 54; Parker, vol. v., p. 80.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Two Spies at Jericho
The Two Spies at Jericho
Joshua himself had been one of twelve sent by Moses on a similar errand, some thirty-eight years before (Numbers 13). The incident, natural in itself, acquires a special interest as bringing before us for the first time Rahab, the great-great-grandmother of David, and so human ancestress of our Saviour (Mat_1:3-6, cp. Rth_4:18-22). it affords incidentally a signal instance among Gentiles of belief in the power of the true God (Jos_2:11.), which is rewarded (Jos_6:25), like the similar attitude of Ruth the Moabitess (Rth_1:16), with incorporation into Israel and into the direct line of Israel's Hope.
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1. Shittim] i.e. 'Acacias.' The district referred to is the part of the Jordan basin opposite Jericho, where acacias still are found. An harlot's] 'We know nothing of her after-conduct, but we may well believe that the faith which an apostle could praise (Heb_11:31; Jam_2:25) was accompanied by a true conversion' (HDB. art. 'Rahab'). See on Jos_2:10 and Jos_6:25.
6. She had brought them, etc.] Then, as now, the flat roofs of Eastern houses were used for such purposes as drying flax stalks. The flax would be ripe (cp. Exo_9:31-32) shortly before wheat harvest.
7. The fords] Clearly, therefore, there were fords in the neighbourhood of Jericho. The account of the miraculous crossing in Joshua 3, 4 cannot be based on ignorance of that fact. At the present time fords are said to be comparatively rare in the southern reaches of Jordan.
9. Your terror is fallen upon us] Cp. Exo_15:14-16. Compare Jos_5:1 for a similar panic produced by the crossing of Jordan.
10f. Rahab had followed the career of Israel with fascinated interest. She is represented as knowing and using the covenant name of 'Jehovah' and as recognising His universal sovereignty. Her whole attitude is in striking contrast to that of her fellow-countrymen.
16. The mountain] the limestone ridges full of caves, NW. of Jericho.
24. Do faint] RV here (and in Jos_2:9 and Exo_15:15) 'do melt away.'
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v21 scarlet line
scarlet line
The scarlet line of Rahab speaks, by its color, of safety through sacrifice. Heb 9:19; Heb 9:22.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 2. The Spies and Rahab’s Faith
2. The Spies and Rahab’s Faith
CHAPTER 2
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1. The spies sent forth (Jos 2:1)
2. Rahab’s faith and works (Jos 2:2-14)
3. The escape of the spies and assurance given (Jos 2:15-21)
4. The return of the spies (Jos 2:22-24)
The historical account needs not to be restated. Joshua, who was one of the spies sent out by Moses, now sends two spies to view the land, even Jericho. Jericho was the great stronghold of the enemy, surrounded by high walls. Jericho means “fragrance” and is a type of the world. (It is interesting to note that in the Hebrew Jericho differs in its spelling in Joshua from that in Numbers. This proves certainly a different authorship.) It is situated near Jordan, the river which typifies death and judgment. The King of Jericho is the type of Satan, the god of this age. The city was grossly immoral, so that it is not strange that the spies came to the house of an harlot. Some have tried to change her character by making her to be an innkeeper. But it cannot be done on account of the word used in the record here and also in the New Testament. Why should even such an attempt be made? Rahab, the harlot, is a beautiful type of the power of the gospel of grace. “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Hebrews 1:31). Her faith she witnessed to by works. “Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?” (Jas 2:25) Rahab belonged to the doomed race, the race against which the curse had been pronounced. In the doomed city she practised her vile occupation. But she heard the report and she believed. She confessed her faith in Jehovah, the God of the heaven above and of the earth beneath. She had a reason for this faith, for she said, “We have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt” (verse 10). She prayed for mercy for herself and her father’s house. She knew judgment would overtake Jericho, that she was a sinner and needed salvation. She believed in Jehovah and believed, that while He is a holy God, who had dealt in judgment with Egypt, that He is also merciful. She trusted in that mercy and appealed to it in her prayer. She claims assurance of salvation and that of her house and she received it in positive terms.
The scarlet-line by which the spies escaped is bound by herself in the window. It was a token to her and a sign to the coming executioners of judgment, when Jericho fell. They saw that scarlet-line; but she was not told to look upon it. How scarlet speaks of the blood needs hardly to be mentioned. It is the type of being sheltered by the blood. “When I shall see the blood, I will pass over you,” was spoken to Israel, behind the blood-sprinkled door posts. The scarlet-line has the same meaning. And we must not forget that two living witnesses gave her the assurance of Salvation. Thus we have our assurance in Him, who died for our sins and who was raised on account of our justification.
By hiding the spies and lying to the King of Jericho, she shows her faith and the weakness of it. To her was also given a place of honor in the first chapter of the New Testament as one of the ancestors of Him who, according to the flesh, is the Son of David.
Dispensationally the application is equally interesting. When Israel is about to be restored to their land, a witness is sounded forth once more, the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom (Mat 24:14). Before the judgments of the Lord are executed in the world, those will be saved during the end of the age who, like Rahab, hear and believe this last kingdom message. They will do good to the Jewish messengers of this final testimony, before the coming of the Lord in power and in glory, as Rahab did good to the spies, the messengers of Joshua. They are those to whom the Lord will say, “What ye have done to the least of these, My brethren, that have ye done unto Me.” Rahab was saved and remained in the land to enjoy the earthly blessings with Israel. So the Gentiles, who hear and believe the last message, who have done good to the messengers of the King, the Lord’s brethren, will be saved from the wrath to come. For a more complete unfolding of this interesting theme, we refer the reader to the exposition of the Olivet discourse in the Gospel of Matthew.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 8 The Spies at Rahab’s House
The Spies at Rahab’s House
v. 1. And Joshua, the son of Hun, sent out of Shittim, a town in Moabitis, where he had his headquarters, this probably having taken place even before the officers of the host made the proclamation throughout the camp, two men to spy secretly, this having reference both to the manner in which the command was given, and the form in which it was carried out, saying, Go view the land, even Jericho, both the city and its vicinity. Jericho was located in a beautiful and fertile valley, noted for its palm-trees, some six to eight miles from the Jordan, and the entire neighborhood was thickly settled. And they went and came into an harlot’s house, where their stay would arouse the least suspicion, named Rahab, and lodged there, prepared to stay there overnight.
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v. 2. And it was told the king of Jericho, probably by some of the watch who had marked the coming of the strangers, saying, Behold, there came men in hither to-night of the children of Israel to search out the country. This was the natural conclusion which the men of Jericho would reach in finding men of Israel in their city.
v. 3. And the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house; for they be come to search out all the country. The king’s messengers did not search her house, but made their demand at the door, relying on her supposed loyalty to produce the spies.
v. 4. And the woman took the two men and hid them, just as soon as the servant in charge of the door had informed her of the identity of the callers, whereupon she appeared at the door in person, and said thus, There came men unto me, literally, "True, there came to me men," but I wist not whence they were;
v. 5. and it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out, for the gates were closed at sunset, and the short twilight was rapidly succeeded by the falling of darkness; she implied that the spies must have taken advantage of the dusk to make their escape. Whither the men went I wot (know) not; pursue after them quickly; for ye shall overtake them.
v. 6. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, those of the Orient being flat and usually parapeted, and hid them with the stalks of flax, unbroken lengths spread out there for the purpose of drying, which she had laid in order upon the roof.
v. 7. And the men, the king’s messengers, pursued after them, the spies, the way to Jordan unto the fords, where they were most likely to cross; and as soon as they which pursued after them were gone out, they, the keepers, the watchmen, shut the gate, to prevent the escape of the spies, if they were still in the city. The obvious terror which had taken hold of the king of Jericho showed that the judgment of the Lord upon the Canaanites had already begun, for it was He who took their courage from them.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 18, 20, 22, 23 This is Joshua's father. (See: How to Translate Names)
Nun
This is Joshua's father. (See: How to Translate Names)
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Shittim
This is the name of a place on the east side of the Jordan River. It means "Acacia Trees." (See: How to Translate Names)
as spies
These men were to visit the land to gain information on how Israel should conquer the land.
translationWords
Joshua
Jericho
house
prostitute
Rahab
king
Israel
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 23 2:1-24 Like any good military commander, Joshua sent out…
2:1-24 Like any good military commander, Joshua sent out spies or scouts to get information about his objective. • Because Israel planned to approach Canaan from the east, they could not bypass Jericho.
2:1 Acacia Grove was about eight miles east of the Jordan River on the plains of Moab, across from Jericho (see Num 25:1). • In the house of a prostitute strangers could avoid unwanted attention. According to tradition, Rahab was an innkeeper as well as a prostitute (Josephus, Antiquities 5.1.2). Other evidence from the ancient Near East suggests that women who owned and operated inns were often prostitutes.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.