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.”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7, 10, 11, 12, 14 7. And the men pursued, etc. Their great credulity…
7. And the men pursued, etc. Their great credulity shows that God had blinded them. Although Rahab had gained much by deluding them, a new course of anxiety intervenes; for the gates being shut, the city like a prison excluded the hope of escape. They were therefore again aroused by a serious trial to call upon God. For seeing that this history was written on their report, it is impossible they could have been ignorant of what was then going on, especially as God, for the purpose of magnifying his grace, purposely exposed them to a succession of dangers. And now when they were informed that search was made for them, we infer from the fact of their being still awake, that they were in anxiety and alarm. Their trepidation must have been in no small degree increased when it was told them that their exit was precluded.
It appears, however, that Rahab was not at all dismayed, since she bargains with so much presence of mind, and so calmly, for her own safety and that of her family. And in this composure and firmness her faith, which is elsewhere commended, appears conspicuous. For on human principles she never would have braved the fury of the king and people, and become a suppliant to guests half dead with terror. Many, indeed, think there is something ridiculous in the eulogium bestowed upon her both by St. James and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, (James 2:25; Hebrews 11:31,) when they place her in the catalogue of the faithful. But any one who will carefully weigh all the circumstances will easily perceive that she was endowed with a lively faith.
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First, If the tree is known by its fruits, we here see no ordinary effects, which are just so many evidences of faith. Secondly, A principle of piety must have given origin to her conviction that the neighboring nations were already in a manner vanquished and laid prostrate, since terror sent from above had filled all minds with dismay. It is true that in profane writers also we meet with similar expressions, which God has extorted from them that he might assert his power to rule and turn the hearts of men in whatever way he pleases. But while these writers prate like parrots, Rahab declaring in sincerity of heart that God has destined the land for the children of Israel, because all the inhabitants have fainted away before them, claims for him a supreme rule over the hearts of men, a rule which the pride of the world denies.
For although the experience of all times has shown that more armies have fallen or been routed by sudden and un-looked for terror than by the force and prowess of the enemy, the impression of this truth has forthwith vanished away, and hence conquerors have always extolled their own valor, and on any prosperous result gloried in their own exertions and talents for war. They have felt, I admit, that daring and courage are occasionally bestowed or withheld by some extraneous cause, and accordingly men confess that in war fortune does much or even reigns supreme. Hence their common proverb with regard to panic terrors, and their vows made as well to Pavor (Dread) as to Jupiter Stator. But it never became a serious and deep-seated impression in their minds, that every man is brave according as God has inspired him with present courage, or cowardly according as he has suppressed his daring. Rahab, however, recognizes the operation of a divine hand in striking the nations of Canaan with dismay, and thus making them as it were by anticipation pronounce their own doom; and she infers that the terror which the children of Israel have inspired is a presage of victory, because they fight under God as their Leader.
In the fact, that while the courage of all had thus melted away, they however prepared to resist with the obstinacy of despair; we see that when the wicked are broken and crushed by the hand of God, they are not so subdued as to receive the yoke, but in their terror and anxiety become incapable of being tamed. Here, too, we have to observe how in a common fear believers differ from unbelievers, and how the faith of Rahab displays itself. She herself was afraid like any other of the people; but when she reflects that she has to do with God, she concludes that her only remedy is to eschew evil by yielding humbly and placidly, as resistance would be altogether unavailing. But what is the course taken by all the wretched inhabitants of the country? Although terror-struck, so far is their perverseness from being overcome that they stimulate each other to the conflict.
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 vv6, 9, 11, 13, 14, 16 Meaning, upon the house: for then their houses were…
Meaning, upon the house: for then their houses were flat above, so that they might do their business thereupon.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–16 Jos 2:6 But she had brought them up to…
Jos 2:6 But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, which she had laid in order upon the roof.
Ver. 6. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house.] {a} Which was built flat in those parts, as they are also at this day in Italy.
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Which she had laid in order upon the roof.] That it might be fully dried, as {Nah 1:10} the wicked are, that they may burn the better: like grapes, they ripen in the sunshine, for the winepress of God’s wrath. {Rev 14:19}
{a} Septuag., δωμα: ut et 1Sa 9:25.
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 vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 Up to the roof, which was plain, after the…
Up to the roof, which was plain, after the manner. See Deu 22:8; Mat 10:27; Mar 2:4; Act 10:9. Laid in order upon the roof, that they may be dried by the heat of the sun.
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 v8 The matter is here settled between Rahab and the…
The matter is here settled between Rahab and the spies respecting the service she was now to do for them, and the favour they were afterwards to show to her. She secures them on condition that they should secure her.
I. She gives them, and by them sends to Joshua and Israel, all the encouragement that could be desired to make their intended descent upon Canaan. this was what they came for, and it was worth coming for. Having got clear of the officers, she comes up to them to the roof of the house where they lay hid, finds them perhaps somewhat dismayed at the peril they apprehended themselves in from the officers, and scarcely recovered from the fright, but has that to say to them which will give them abundant satisfaction. 1. She lets them know that the report of the great things God had done for them had come to Jericho (v. 10), not only that they had an account of their late victories obtained over the Amorites in the neighbouring country, on the other side of the river, but that their miraculous deliverance out of Egypt, and passage through the Red Sea, a great way off, and forty years ago, were remembered and talked of afresh in Jericho, to the amazement of every body. Thus this Joshua and his fellows were men wondered at, Zac 3:8. See how God makes his wonderful works to be remembered (Psa 111:4), so that men shall speak of the might of his terrible acts, Psa 145:6. 2. She tells them what impressions the tidings of these things had made upon the Canaanites: Your terror has fallen upon us (Jos 2:9); our hearts did melt, Jos 2:11. If she kept a public house, this would give her an opportunity of understanding the sense of various companies and of travellers from other parts of the country, so that they could not know this any way better than by her information; and it would be of great use to Joshua and Israel to know it; it would put courage into the most cowardly Israelite to hear how their enemies were dispirited, and it was easy to conclude that those who now fainted before them would infallibly fall before them, especially because it was the accomplishment of a promise God had made them, that he would lay the fear and dread of them upon all this land (Deu 11:25), and so it would be an earnest of the accomplishment of all the other promises God had made to them. Let not the stout man glory in his courage, any more than the strong man in his strength; for God can weaken both mind and body. Let not God's Israel be afraid of their most powerful enemies; for their God can, when he pleases, make their most powerful enemies afraid of them. Let none think to harden their hearts against God and prosper; for he that made man's soul can at any time make the sword of his terrors approach to it. 3. She hereupon makes profession of her faith in God and his promise; and perhaps there was not found so great faith (all things considered), no, not in Israel, as in this woman of Canaan. (1.) who believes God's power and dominion over all the world (v. 11): "Jehovah your God, whom you worship and call upon, is so far above all gods that he is the only true God; for he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath, and is served by all the hosts of both." A vast distance there is between heaven and earth, yet both are equally under the inspection and government of the great Jehovah. Heaven is not above his power, nor is earth below his cognizance. (2.) She believes his promise to his people Israel (v. 9): I know that the Lord hath given you the land. The king of Jericho had heard as much as she had of the great things God had done for Israel, yet he cannot infer thence that the Lord had given them this land, but resolves to hold it out against them to the last extremity; for the most powerful means of conviction will not of themselves attain the end without divine grace, and by that grace Rahab the harlot, who had only heard of the wonders God had wrought, speaks with more assurance of the truth of the promise made to the fathers than all the elders of Israel had done who were eye-witnesses of those wonders, many of whom perished through unbelief of this promise. Blessed are those that have not seen, and yet have believed; so Rahab did. O woman, great is thy faith!
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II. She engaged them to take her and her relations under their protection, that they might not perish in the destruction of Jericho, v. 12, 13. Now, 1. It was an evidence of the sincerity and strength of her faith concerning the approaching revolution in her country that she was so solicitous to make an interest for herself with the Israelites, and courted their kindness. She foresaw the conquest of her country, and in the belief of that bespoke in time the favour of the conquerors. Thus Noah, being moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, and the condemning of the world, Heb 11:7. Those 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 of eternal life, by joining themselves to God and to his people. 2. The provision she made for the safety of her relations, as well as for her own, is a laudable instance of natural affection, and an intimation to us in like manner to do all we can for the salvation of the souls of those that are dear to us, and, with ourselves, to bring them, if possible, into the bond of the covenant. No mention is made of her husband and children, but only her parents, and brothers, and sisters, for whom, though she was herself a housekeeper, she retained a due concern. 3. Her request that they would swear unto her by Jehovah is an instance of her acquaintance with the only true God, and her faith in him and devotion towards him, one act of which is religiously to swear by his name. 4. Her petition is very just and reasonable, that, since she had protected them, they should protect her, and since her kindness to them extended to their people, for whom they were now negotiating, their kindness to her should take in all hers. It was the least they could do for one that had saved their lives with the hazard of her own. Note, Those that show mercy may expect to find mercy. Observe, She does not demand any preferment by way of reward for her kindness to them, though they lay so much at her mercy that she might have made her own terms, but only indents for her Life, which in a general destruction would be a singular favour. Thus God promised Ebed-Melech, in recompence for his kindness to Jeremiah, that in the worst of times he should have his life for a prey, Jer 39:18. Yet this Rahab was afterwards advanced to be a princess in Israel, the wife of Salmon, and one of the ancestors of Christ, Mat 1:5. Those that faithfully serve Christ and suffer for him he will not only protect, but prefer, and will do for them more than they are able to ask or think.
III. They solemnly engaged for her preservation in the common destruction (Jos 2:14): "Our life for yours. We will take as much care of your lives as of our own, and would as soon hurt ourselves as any of you." Nay, they imprecate God's judgments on themselves if they should violate their promise to her. She had pawned her life for theirs, and now they in requital pawn their lives for hers, and (as public persons) with them they pawn the public faith and the credit of their nation, for they plainly interest all Israel in the engagement in those words, When the Lord has given us the land, meaning not themselves only, but the people whose agents they were. No doubt they knew themselves sufficiently authorized to treat with Rahab concerning this matter, and were confident that Joshua would ratify what they did, else they had not dealt honestly; the general law that they should make no covenant with the Canaanites (Deu 7:2) did not forbid them to take under their protection a particular person, that had heartily come into their interests and had done them real kindnesses. The law of gratitude is one of the laws of nature. Now observe here, 1. The promises they made her. In general, "We will deal kindly and truly with thee, v. 14. We will not only be kind in promising now, but true in performing what we promise; and not only true in performing just what we promise, but kind in out-doing thy demands and expectations." The goodness of God is often expressed by his kindness and truth (Psa 117:2), and in both these we must be followers of him. In particular, "If a hand be upon any in the house with thee, his blood shall be on our head," v. 19. If hurt come through our carelessness to those whom we are obliged to protect, we thereby contract guilt, and blood will be found a heavy load. 2. The provisos and limitations of their promises. Though they were in haste, and it may be in some confusion, yet we find them very cautious in settling this agreement and the terms of it, not to bind themselves to more than was fit for them to perform. Note, Covenants must be made with care, and we must swear in judgment, lest we find ourselves perplexed and entangled when it is too late after vows to make enquiry. Those that will be conscientious in keeping their promises will be cautious in making them, and perhaps may insert conditions which others may think frivolous. Their promise is here accompanied with three provisos, and they were necessary ones. They will protect Rahab, and all her relations always, provided, (1.) That she tie the scarlet cord with which she was now about to let them down in the window of her house, v. 18. This was to be a mark upon the house, which the spies would take care to give notice of to the camp of Israel, that no soldier, how hot and eager soever he was in military executions, might offer any violence to the house that was thus distinguished. This was like the blood sprinkled upon the door-post, which secured the first-born from the destroying angel, and, being of the same colour, some allude to this also to represent the safety of believers under the protection of the blood of Christ sprinkled on the conscience. The same cord that she made use of for the preservation of these Israelites was to be made use of for her preservation. What we serve and honour God with we may expect he will bless and make comfortable to us. (2.) That she should have all those whose safety she had desired in the house with her and keep them there, and that, at the time of taking the town, none of them should dare to stir out of doors, v. 18, 19. This was a necessary proviso, for Rahab's kindred could not be distinguished any other way than by being in her distinguished house; should they mingle with their neighbours, there was no remedy, but the sword would devour one as well as another. It was a reasonable proviso that, since they were saved purely for Rahab's sake, her house should have the honour of being their castle, and that, if they would not perish with those that believed not, they should thus far believe the certainty and severity of the ruin coming upon their city as to retire into a place made safe by promise, as Noah into the ark and Lot into Zoar, and should save themselves from this untoward generation, by separating from them. It was likewise a significant proviso, intimating to us that those who are added to the church that they may be saved must keep close to the society of the faithful, and, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, must take heed of being again entangled therein. (3.) That she should keep counsel (v. 14, 20): If thou utter this our business, that is, "If thou betray us when we are gone, or if thou make this agreement public, so as that others tie scarlet lines in their windows and so confound us, then we will be clear of thy oath." Those are unworthy of the secret of the Lord that know now how to keep it to themselves when there is occasion.
IV. She then took effectual care to secure her new friends, and sent them out another way, Jam 2:25. Having fully understood the bargain they made with her, and consented to it (Jos 2:21), she then let them down by a cord over the city wall (Jos 2:15), the situation of her house befriending them herein: thus Paul made his escape out of Damascus, Co2 11:33. She also directed them which way to go for their own safety, being better acquainted with the country than they were, Jos 2:16. she directs them to leave the high road, and abscond in the mountains till the pursuers returned, for till then they could not safely venture over Jordan. those that are in the way of God and their duty may expect that Providence will protect them, but this will not excuse them from taking all prudent methods for their own safety. God will keep us, but then we must not wilfully expose ourselves. Providence must be trusted, but not tempted. Calvin thinks that their charge to Rahab to keep this matter secret, and not to utter it, was intended for her safety, lest she, boasting of her security from the sword of Israel, should, before they came to protect her, fall into the hands of the king of Jericho and be put to death for treason: thus do they prudently advise her for her safety, as she advised them for theirs. And it is good advice, which we should at any time be thankful for, to take heed to ourselves.
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 vv6–16 But she had brought them up to the roof…
But she had brought them up to the roof of the house,.... Before the messengers came; though Abarbinel thinks it was after they were gone, when she took them from the place of their concealment, and had them to the roof of the house, where she thought they would be safe and secure, should the messengers return, or others come in search of them, who would not, as she imagined, look for them there:
and hid them with the stalks of flax; that is, under them, or "in flax of wood", or "a tree" (b); which may with as much propriety, or more, be called a tree than hyssop, Kg1 4:33; as it is in the Misnah (c). Moreover, there was a sort of flax which grew in the upper part of Egypt towards Arabia, as Pliny says (d), which they called "xylon", or wood, of which were made "lina xylina": though the words may be rightly transposed, as by as, "stalks of flax", which are large and strong before the flax is stripped or beaten off of them; the Targum renders it bundles of flax, or handfuls and sheaves of them, as they were when cut down and gathered:
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which she had laid in order upon the roof; to be dried, as Kimchi observes; and Pliny (e) speaks of flax being bound up in bundles, and hung up and dried in the sun; which was done that it might be more easily stripped and beaten off; and the roofs of houses in those countries being flat, were very fit for such a purpose; See Gill on Deu 22:8; and these being now laid there were very suitable and convenient to conceal the men under them. This seems to be in favour of Rahab, as being a virtuous and industrious woman; see Pro 31:13.
(b) "in linis ligni", Montanus; "vel arboris", Vatablus. (c) Sabbat, c. 2. sect. 3. & Bartenora in ib. (d) Nat. Hist. l. 19. c. 1. (e) Nat. Hist. l. 19. c. 1.
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 vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 Roof - Which was flat after their manner. Upon…
Roof - Which was flat after their manner. Upon the roof - That they might be dried by the heat of the sun.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 Verse 6. Hid then with the stalks of flax]…
Verse 6. Hid then with the stalks of flax] It is a matter of little consequence whether we translate פסתי העיץ pistey haets stalks of flax, or stalks of hemp: the word עץ ets, which signifies wood, serves to show that whether it was hemp or flax, it was in its rough, unmanufactured state; and as this was about the season, viz., the end of March or the beginning of April, in which the flax is ripe in that country, consequently Rahab's flax might have been recently pulled, and was now drying on the roof of her house. The reader may find some useful remarks upon this subject in Harmer's Observations, vol. iv., p. 97, c.
Upon the roof.] We have already seen that all the houses in the east were made flat-roofed for which a law is given De 22:8. On these flat roofs the Asiatics to this day walk, converse, and oftentimes even sleep and pass the night. It is probable that this hiding was after that referred to in the fourth verse.
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 vv6, 8, 12, 14, 15 Jos 2:6-7. Up to the roof — In those…
Jos 2:6-7. Up to the roof — In those countries the roofs of the houses were made quite flat, and it is probable it might be customary to lay the stalks of flax upon them that they might be dried by the heat of the sun. Fords — Or, passages; that is, the places where people used to pass over Jordan, whether by boats or bridges. The gate — Of the city, to prevent the escape of the spies, if peradventure Rahab was mistaken, and they yet lurked therein.
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 vv6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15 Stalks of flax - literally, “the carded fibres of…
Stalks of flax - literally, “the carded fibres of the tree.” The flax in Palestine grew to more than three feet in height, with a stalk as thick as a cane. It was probably with the flax stalks, recently cut (compare Exo 9:31, note) and laid out on the house roof to dry, that Rahab hid the spies.
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 vv6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16 There. The roofs were flat in that country, and…
There. The roofs were flat in that country, and consequently very proper to dry flax, or "cotton," as Masius understands.
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).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16 she had brought them up to the roof of…
she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax--Flax, with other vegetable productions, is at a certain season spread out on the flat roofs of Eastern houses to be dried in the sun; and, after lying awhile, it is piled up in numerous little stacks, which, from the luxuriant growth of the flax, rise to a height of three or four feet. Behind some of these stacks Rahab concealed the spies.
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 vv6–16 6. She had brought them up to the roof…
6. She had brought them up to the roof of the house — This verse more fully explains Jos_2:4, by detailing the place and manner of her concealing the spies. Eastern houses have flat roofs, surrounded with a parapet to prevent falling off. Deu_28:8. Here the family often sleep, sit, walk, and store such articles as will not be damaged by the exposure. Sometimes the roof is shaded by means of an awning supported by posts. See note on Act_10:9.
Stalks of flax — Hebrews flax of the tree; that is, flax in the tree or stalk. Some render these words stalks or pods of cotton, but without sufficient authority. Flax is said to grow in Egypt to a great size, and its stalks attain the thickness of a cane, and so it doubtless did in the rich plain of Jericho. To dry stalks of such thickness much exposure to the sun would be necessary, and they were laid out in such abundance on Rahab’s house that the two men could be easily concealed among them.
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 vv6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 6. the roof of the house] The roofs of…
6. the roof of the house] The roofs of Eastern houses were flat (St Mar_2:4), and were made useful for various purposes, as drying corn, hanging up linen, and preparing figs and raisins. They were also used as (a) places of recreation in the evening; (b) sleeping-places at night, when the interior apartments were too hot or sultry for refreshing repose; (c) places for devotion and even idolatrous worship. Comp. 1Sa_9:25-26; 2Sa_11:2; 2Sa_16:22; 2Ki_23:12; Dan_4:29; Act_2:1; Act_10:9. The Jewish Law required that they should have a battlement, in order that guilt of blood might not come upon the house through any one falling from it (Deu_22:8). “Parts of Roman houses were also furnished with such roofs called solaria, because they lay exposed on all sides to the sun, and also mœniana, as the Italians now also call them altana.” Lange’s Commentary.
the stalks of flax] “stubble of flaxe,” Wyclif. Unbroken flax is here meant, the stalks of which, about Jericho and in Egypt, reached a height of more than three feet and the thickness of a reed. It was anciently one of the most important crops in Palestine (Hos_2:5; Hos_2:9).
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 vv6, 9, 13, 15, 16 (6) The stalks of flax.—It is remarked that flax…
(6) The stalks of flax.—It is remarked that flax and barley are both early crops (Exo_9:31), and that the first month (see Jos_4:19) was the time of barley harvest. (Comp. 2Sa_21:9.)
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 vv6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 But she had brought them up. Literally, and she…
But she had brought them up. Literally, and she caused them to ascend; but our version has very properly (see ver. 4) given the preterit the pluperfect sense here. "Two strangers, Israelites, spies, have a safe harbour provided them, even amongst their enemies, against the proclamation of a king." "Where cannot the God of heaven either find or raise up friends to His own causes and servants?" (Bp. Hall.) To the roof of the house. The flat roofs of Oriental, and even of Greek and Italian houses, are used for all kinds of purposes, especially for drying corn and other things for domestic use. (see 1Sa_9:25, 26 2Sa_11:2 2Sa_16:22 2Ki_23:12. Also Act_10:9, where the roof is used as a place of retirement and repose) Stalks of flax. Literally, flax of the tree. The word translated flax either of the raw material or of the linen made from it. Here it must mean flax as it came cut from the field; that is, as our version translates it, the stalks of flax (linokalamh , LXX), which grows in Egypt to a height of three feet, and may be presumed to have attained a height not much less at Jericho. The word dr which signifies to lay in a row, and is used of the wood on the altar in Gen_22:9, and of the shew bread in Lev_24:6, confirms this view. It is obvious that this would have formed a most sufficient hiding place for the fugitives. "Either faith or friendship are not tried but in extremities. To show countenance to the messengers of God while the publique face of the State smiles upon them, is but a courtesy of course; but to hide our own lives in theirs when they are persecuted is an act which looks for a reward" (Bp. Hall).
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — 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 vv8, 14 Jos_2:9. Your terror is fallen upon us] As Moses…
CRITICAL NOTES.—
Jos_2:9. Your terror is fallen upon us] As Moses had predicted forty years before; Exo_15:15.
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Jos_2:12. Give me a true token] Rahab asks them to enter into solemn covenant with her, and to establish something as the usual token or sign. The sign of the covenant in this case was the scarlet cord named in Jos_2:18.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Jos_2:8-13
PHASES OF HUMAN FAITH AND DIVINE MERCY
Notwithstanding the labours of such writers as Josephus, the Jewish Rabbins, and Adam Clarke, who from worthy motives have tried to shew that Rahab was merely an innkeeper, or hostess, there can be no doubt to most people that she was the abandoned woman which our version declares her to have been. Kitto summarises the argument nearly as follows:—The balance of opinion among scholars supports our translation; the Septuagint renders the Hebrew word by an expression which all agree means “a harlot;” the Epistle to the Hebrews and that of James follow the Septuagint; Rahab, who is so careful about the saving of her relatives, says no word as to her husband or children; after her settlement among the Israelites she married Salmon, a Jewish prince; and, finally, there are no such persons as “hostesses” in the East. Volney says, “There are no inns anywhere, but the cities and commonly the villages have a large building called a khan or caravanserai, which serves as an asylum for all travellers. The keeper of this khan gives the traveller his key and a mat, and he provides himself the rest.” It is important, as it affects the gracious teaching of the Scriptures, that Rahab’s character be taken as it is set before us.
I. Some phases of this woman’s faith.
1. It seems, at the stage where the N. T. commends it, to have been only the faith of fear. It sprang from her terror (Jos_2:9-11). The strange and unprecedented passage of the Red Sea had appalled the Canaanites. The overthrow of Sihon and Og had alarmed them no less. The Amorites were a very powerful and warlike race. They had overcome the Rephaims or giants (Deu_2:20-21); they had driven out the Ammonites and Moabites. A contest with Sihon, therefore, was a terrible thing for Israel; but they had Ebenezers of mercy even then behind them, Moses with them, and God and His word for all the conflicts before them. The Amorites were utterly defeated, and their king slain. The kingdom of Og was even more formidable. The territory was far larger, the people very warlike, their king a giant, and their land crowded with fortified cities. For the armour of those days the very houses must have been as forts; they were built, we are told, of huge basalt rocks, having the walls, in some cases, four feet thick, and thick stone slabs, swinging upon pivots in sockets, for doors. But the battle of Edrei was decisive; Og was slain, as Sihon had been, and his forces were utterly routed. No wonder that the fear of the Lord fell on the Canaanites on the western side of the river. No wonder that the inhabitants of Jericho felt their hearts melting for fear. With Rahab’s fear there came something more; she was convinced that the God of Israel was “God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” Her fear led her to faith, and her faith to fear still more. Is such faith “saving faith”? Yes, if you follow it up, and no amount of faith will save any one without. See how God has often aimed at the salvation of men by beginning with their fears. What else but leading men to faith through fear was God’s work through Elijah on Carmel, or through Jonah at Nineveh? What else had been God’s work with these Israelites and their fathers in Egypt and the wilderness? The ten plagues, the miracle at the Red Sea, the judgment on Korah and his followers, the fiery serpents, and many other wonders were designed to work awe in the minds of the Israelites, and, with awe, belief. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” in these days of the gospel, as well as in those days of old. It does not matter how we begin to be Christians, if we only go on, and keep on. What men want is to be made to think; thought on God will soon lead to decision, let the thinking begin how it may. If a sleeper awake at night in a burning house, it is of no consequence whether he sees the fire, smells it, tastes the disagreeable smoke, feels the hot air, hears the roaring of the flames within, or earnest voices calling “fire” from without. The one thing for safety is to know that there is fire, and it does not matter at all by which of the senses it was first apprehended. Let no one say, “I am so full of fears; I cannot be saved:” it is just as well for safety that we apprehend God through fear as through any other faculty or power of our being. After all, there may be more faith in fear than many think there is. No man should expect to begin a Christian life in songs of rich experience. If a rich man were to adopt a ragged child from the streets, the joys of childhood would not come at once. At first there would be timidity and pain at all the new grandeur; it could be only when the child got to feel it was really loved that it would gradually come into the child-feeling, and begin to store up filial experiences. The twenty-third Psalm was not written as the beginning of David’s piety. Peter wrote, “Unto you therefore which believe He is precious,” but he had to find all that out by a long, a varied, and often a most humiliating experience. It was only as an old man, who had learned how Christ had prayed that Satan might not “sift him as wheat,” how Christ had often forgiven him, often encouraged him, and always loved him, that Peter could say, “He is precious.” Go on with even the faith of fear; that also leads to an inheritance in the land.
2. Rahab’s faith was mixed with absolute sin. I do not know if she was immoral at the time when the spies came; many good people say she was not, trying to prove the next best thing possible. Why should we go so far about to prove this sinner almost a saint, in order to make her fit to be saved? Perhaps it would be better to take her for just what Scripture calls her. It is much more simple, more encouraging to many, and certainly more sensible. If the Saviour could say to the Pharisees, “The thieves and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you,” we shall do very little, excepting that we shall lower the grace of the gospel, by saying here of Rahab that she “had formerly been of ill fame, the reproach of which stuck to her name, though of late she had repented and reformed.” Any way, Rahab lied. Not a few good men, with laudable motives, doubtless, but with most unwise zeal, have tried to justify or excuse even this. Under no circumstances whatever can a lie be anything but sin. The morality of the great epic poet of the Greeks, call him a heathen though we may, is blessedly better than some of the casuistry which Christian men have written on this. Homer said bluntly,—
“My soul detests him as the gates of hell,
Who knows the truth, and dares a falsehood tell.”
With equal firmness and excellent definition good George Herbert also wrote,—
“Lie not; but let thy heart be true to God;
Thy tongue to it, thy actions to them both.
Dare to be true! nothing can need a lie;
The fault that needs it most grows two thereby.”
Some who begin to serve God are discouraged when they find sin mixed with their faith. Sin cannot make us too much distrust ourselves, but no sin that has penitence should lead to distrust of God.
3. As far as Rahab’s faith had knowledge, it also had works. James seizes on that feature. The woman hid the servants of God. She confessed her faith freely, and her confession is very wonderful. No amount of faith can be of any use without works. We may believe as much as the angel Gabriel, but not to work is to sin against all the additional light which goes with our faith. God garners faith in fruit, not faith in blossom.
4. Rahab believed in God in the midst of unbelief. She alone, in Jericho and all Canaan, seems at this time to have accepted Israel’s God for her God. It is all very well and sufficiently easy to believe what every one else accepts; can we dare to believe God when alone? Can we believe when all the companions of our daily life scoff at us? Can we hold our faith singly about particular truths or principles?
5. Rahab’s faith went with compassion and love. She had thought for the safety of her relatives. If we are doing nothing to save others, let us remember that no one can fill our place. No one else has our particular mind, or temperament, or experiences, or opportunities.
6. Rahab’s faith was only in God. She believed in a living being of great power, who loved the Israelites, and helped them so that none could stand against them. She was absolutely without any systematic creed. Creeds are good so far as we must have them, but we had better leave them to come to us, and not go in search of them. Max Müller has pointed out that though “nature is incapable of progress or improvement,” when men become familiar with any science they begin to classify its features. So the botanist began in time to classify flowers; and when men began to study language, that too entered upon its “classificatory stage.” Classification is the necessary outcome of knowledge. Men accumulate items of knowledge, and then, in order to remember them better, and understand them more thoroughly, they formulate and arrange them. A Christian with much experience and many thoughts of God must have a creed; he cannot help it; it is the necessary outcome of growth. But it is unwise for anxious souls seeking Jesus Christ as their Saviour to burden and perplex themselves with theology. Like Rahab, let them simply believe in Him who has helped so many of His people to such mighty victories.
II. Some forms of Divine mercy.
1. God’s mercy tends to strengthen faith from its very beginnings to its crisis. This woman had heard of the Red Sea, of the overthrow of Sihon and Og, and she believed. After her confession she is strengthened right up to the time of trial. (a) The Jordan divides; while the hearts of her neighbours became still more “as water,” how Rahab must have been confirmed in the choice she had made! (b) Then here was this strange procession of this vast army, marching round Jericho, for six days, once a day Not a shout was to be heard; the only noise was from those seven rams’ horns, which blew out their strange notice just in front of the ark, which was the symbol of religion and of God’s presence. How unlike ordinary fighting it must have seemed! Taken in connection with the circumcision and passover hard by at Gilgal, how superhuman the aspect of the whole campaign must have become! Every movement would be saying to Rahab, “The God of heaven and earth is undertaking all.” Surely the very strangeness of the siege, so terrifying to the Canaanites, would have tended to increase her faith. (c) On the seventh day, at the close of the seventh march round the city, each of the last six of which had been indicating the coming crisis, the people shouted, and the wall fell down flat, and the Israelites went up “every man straight before him into the city.” It seems as though the wall fell down entirely round the city, so that the men who surrounded the city had not to walk some one way and some another to various breaches, but there was an open path before them all. We find, however, that Rahab’s house was upon or against the wall, and yet that fell not; for the spies went in, and brought her and her family out in safety. Here, then, in the very crisis of trial, God gave this woman a sign which seemed to say within her, “Israel has covenanted with me, and, lo, the God of Israel makes the covenant of His people His own bond also!” All the wall, or much of it, had fallen; her house stood firmly. Thus from its beginning to its greatest ordeal does God’s mercy graciously provide means to sustain and strengthen this woman’s faith. Is Divine mercy less careful for us? No; to us all, if we will only look, God gives increasing light. “The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
2. God’s mercy is very pitiful in its estimate of human surroundings. Only this woman’s faith is spoken of in the N. T.; nothing whatever is said of her lie; and while she is called a harlot, there is no upbraiding of her because of past sin. The good is proclaimed with honour; the evil is recognised, but the very terms in which it is named seem to treat it as forgiven. Thus God “hides His face” from our transgressions, and our sin He “covers.”
3. God’s mercy is seen giving exceptional faith conspicuous honour. (a) This woman marries a prince in Israel; (b) becomes a progenitor of our Lord; (c) and has most honourable mention in the New Testament. Christ comes through all sorts of characters, and through all ranks of society; some ancestors are kings, and some are the poor. He seems to say by the very manner of His coming that He appears on earth for all sorts of sinners, and for all ranks and conditions of men. It is significant, too, that Christ’s parents—the last in the line of genealogy—are poor, as though even the birth of the Saviour should lay its emphasis on the after word, “To the poor the gospel is preached.” When sinful Rahab stands in the line of so much honour, faith in any one may well anticipate “the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.”
4. God’s mercy is seen saving “all them that believe,” even though faith may be poor and small. Rahab had only the faith of fear, and she and her family were delivered from death; doubtless the wonders of God’s mercy, when Jericho fell, led her into a larger trust and a holier life. We cannot but look on her as in heaven, when we see her so commended in the New Testament. So does God encourage even fear, and so does He teach our feeble faith to hope in His mercy.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Jos_2:8-12. THE DIFFERING MEASURES OF LIFE’S INFLUENCE ON MEN.
“I know that the Lord” (Jos_2:9); “WE have heard how the Lord” (Jos_2:10). “WE heard, and OUR heart did melt” (Jos_2:11). “Now therefore I pray you” (Jos_2:12). All had heard the same things, and all feared; only one prayed, and only one believed and worked the works of faith.
I. There are multitudes who hear of the Lord, but the voice of the Lord is one voice to them all. Some men hear or see more of the Lord’s deeds than others, but, substantially, the deeds all “speak the same thing.” There are no contradictions; the works and words are all in one direction.
1. The teachings of NATURE are substantially the same everywhere. “The testimony of the rocks” is one testimony to all who read it aright. Each flower and blade of grass and tree alike tells of creative wisdom, power, and love. The voice is the same in all places. So it is of the “great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable.” “The heavens declare the glory of God.… There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line [or teaching] is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world;” and the words are the same wherever men will listen to them and search out their meaning. African stars, American heavens, the Asian firmament, and the European sky, all speak in harmony. In the hymn usually attributed to Addison, but recently claimed, and apparently with good reason, as Andrew Marvell’s, we sing—
“The spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim;”
and they proclaim Him without contradiction, and, unlike men, without controversy. Law everywhere preaches the same thing about fire and water, about heat and actinism and colour, about chemical properties and mechanical appliances, about obedience to its precepts on the one hand, or our transgression of them on the other.
2. The teachings of Providence have been everywhere similar. In all times the wicked have often been found to “flourish like a green bay tree,” and the true-hearted have often been “an afflicted and poor people;” yet the industrious and the wise have ever had their reward. Sudden accidents and calamities have been the heritage of all the ages. Similar weaknesses, sicknesses, diseases, bereavements, graves, have been, from the first proclaiming one providence for all times and lands.
3. The teachings of Human History are similar. Man’s sins—his wars, murders, lyings, duplicity, mere pleasure-seeking, his pride and selfishness—have always tended to degradation and misery: Man’s virtues—his sympathy, self-denial, generosity, love, meekness—have always worked peace, and brought a goodly heritage.
4. The teachings of the Human Conscience and the Heart have never materially differed. Conscience has brought fear to the wicked and peace to the pure, from the day when Adam hid himself till now. The heart that has lived merely for this world has always had its sense of emptiness. Human desires and yearnings and hopes have ever gone out to things beyond death.
5. The teachings of the Bible have ever been in one direction. The early times had not so much light as these latter days, in which God has spoken unto us by His Son, but the light has ever shewn one path, having but one kind of traveller, and one hope and end for them all.
II. When the mightier works of the Lord and His sterner words have been forced prominently on the thoughts of men, they have always tended to work fear and despondency. Now some divided sea, now the smiting of mighty kings who could have helped them, and now promises of a heritage to some one else which threatened them with dispossession, have, all through human history, made the hearts of men “to melt.” Disastrous earthquakes, the ravages of epidemic disease, appalling accidents, the threatenings of the Scripture against idolatry and all sin, have, when forced suddenly on the attention, made men’s hearts “as water.” Power, when not understood, ever works awe.
III. While the works and word of the Lord bring fear to all men at first, in some fear gives place to faith, and desire, and love. The inhabitants of Jericho all heard and trembled; only Rahab passed out of fear into faith and service. Nothing is more marked in the Bible than this differing measure of influence wrought by the same word. Whether the risen Saviour has revealed Himself to men, or Paul has preached at Athens or in his own lodging at Rome, it has ever had to be written, “And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.” How are we hearing? “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jos_2:9 only.
I. The testimony of those who are weak and untaught. “I know,” said Rahab; what witness should we bear? “Much is given” to us;—education, associations, godly parents, Christian teachers, an entire gospel of mighty and merciful works.
II. The confidence of the weak and untaught. “I know,” etc. In all Rahab’s gospel there was not a single promise. She only saw two or three of the mighty acts of the Lord, yet she believed, doubting nothing. Our gospel has the cradle, the promises, the tenderness, and even the tears and the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
III. The encouragement given by the weak and untaught. “The Lord hath given you the land,” etc. Rahab was with these Israelites “in much assurance;” she might have no promise of her own, she would read and understand and proclaim the blessedness of theirs.
Jos_2:10-11. COMING TO A KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.
I. The use of religious memories. The miracle of the Red Sea had taken place forty years before. This was a period equal to half a lifetime. If living then, Rahab could have been only a child. Perhaps, to her, the miracle was only a tradition; but she thought on it, and it helped to lead her to a conclusion.
1. We want help from all the faculties of our being when we are seeking to know the Lord. Within, we have much to dim our vision: pride, self-love, and sin in many forms. Without, temptation has a thousand fair disguises, and every time we sin we hide God from our eyes. We might as well try in the same instant to look north and south, to the sky over our heads and the earth at our feet, as to seek sin and see God. To know Him, we need each power of our being for that one purpose.
2. Memory, however, is peculiarly helpful in getting this knowledge. (a) Memory brings to us life’s select teachings. We look through our family albums, and do not find there cartes in general; they are not portraits of Her Majesty’s army or navy; they are select—every face is the face of a friend. We look through our Bibles, and we have in them favourite passages which fill us with peace; and we know far better where to find our twenty-third Psalm, or our fourteenth of John, than some name in the genealogies, or some obscure incident written in the book of Chronicles. So when we look through our minds, many things are hidden by time, only select memories come up, and these, where they are religious, are the most beautiful and the most helpful. (b) Memory often brings delineations of God from the past which are both clearer and purer than our present impressions. They are pictures of our childhood, at once full of realism and full of innocence. (c) Memory might bring up, not only its visions of the past, but its reproof in the present. Rahab, and we not less, might find room to ask, “How am I, compared with my thoughts of God years ago? what has my life been since—alas! what? Have I grown in the knowledge of Him?” Memory helped her to decide in this her last opportunity; destruction soon came, suddenly as at the Sea, and these few moments with the spies were standing for her eternity. What of our moments; are they equally important? what of our memories; are we using them, while yet there is time, to help us to know Him, “whom to know is eternal life”?
II. The blessings of observation and reflection. “The two kings of the Amorites” had fallen but recently. The victories obtained over them made this woman think. Some pass through life seeing but little, and not reflecting on even that. Life is a stream which runs past them; they see its waters shimmer in the sunlight, and hear the cheerful ripple, the soft murmuring, or the ceaseless roar of its progress, but they never stoop to drink. Life carries everything past them, and brings them nothing which they make their own. Who can wonder if danger and death overtake them while yet unprepared?
III. The value of cumulative evidence and repeated emotions. The Red Sea made Rahab do nothing, the death of Sihon does not apparently move her to any works, the overthrow of Og leaves her still in Jericho; but the coming of the spies, and their conversation, added to all that went before, make her covenant for her salvation.
1. The unused evidence of life. No man can destroy this evidence. It is accumulating either to (a) gradually convince us, or to (b) finally overwhelm us.
2. The unimproved feelings of life. Joys, sorrows, fears, etc., are either exhausting and withering our hearts, and leaving them callous, or they are being treasured up and cultivated within us as the beginnings of our eternal hymn of adoration and praise.
IV. The salvation that comes of facing the whole truth, and then confessing it to others.
1. We should never conceal from ourselves our utter helplessness as against God.
2. We should never deny even to our own hearts the glory of God; (a) His sovereignty in heaven above; (b) His sovereignty in earth beneath.
3. What we acknowledge of the glory of God to ourselves, it is best to confess to His people. (a) It is God’s right. (b) His people may be able to help us. (c) Our confession may lead to our salvation.
Jos_2:12-13.
I. Faith looking within.
1. It has self-distrust.
2. It has no rest till it secures covenanted mercy.
3. Though it be faith, it yet needs some help from signs—“Give me a true token.” Those who feel most sincerely how blessed it is to believe when they have not seen, cling, nevertheless, to that sign of the everlasting covenant, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
II. Faith looking around. Faith in God, though in a sinner like this, and in days so far back and light so feeble as hers, has ever the same tendencies.
1. It wants others to be in the covenant also.
2. It begins among its own kindred.
3. It places the life first, and makes things subordinate.
4. It not only has compassion for others, but expectation from others: “I pray you, since I have shewed you kindness, that ye will also shew kindness.” Faith is very human in its pity and generous kindness; it is not so superhuman that it can receive harshness for gentleness without feeling wounded. Some people know very well that the faith of Christians should lead to compassion and help; they utterly forget that it is natural for even faith to be pained by ingratitude.
III. Faith looking on high.
1. It has adoration and praise for God’s power (Jos_2:11).
2. It regards that power no longer as a terror, but a joy. Rahab wanted to get with God’s people, in order that Divine power, instead of destroying her and hers, might defend them. The truth which at first made the heart melt, became speedily its “shield and buckler.”
3. Faith has not only praise for God, and a new feeling as to His power, it has regard to the honour of His name: “Swear unto me by the Lord.”
On the passage in Jas_2:25, Manton gives the following very suggestive thoughts concerning the case of Rahab:—
“I. God may choose the worst of sinners. Even in a harlot faith is acceptable. II. The meanest faith must justify itself by works and gracious effects. III. Believers, though they justify their profession, are still monuments of free grace. It is Rahab the harlot, though justified by works. IV. Ordinary acts are gracious, when they flow from faith and are done in obedience. Entertainment, in such a case, is not civility, but religion. A cup of cold water in the name of a prophet is not courtesy, but duty, and shall not lose its reward. A carnal man performs his religious duties for civil ends, and a godly man his civil duties for religious ends. There is no alchemy like that of grace, where brass is turned into gold, and actions of commerce are made worship. V. The great trial of faith is in actions of self-denial. Rahab preferred the will of God to the welfare of her country; Abraham the same will to the life of Isaac. A man is not discovered when God’s way and his own lie together. VI. The actions and duties of God’s children are usually blemished with some notable defect. Rahab’s entertainment was associated with Rahab’s lie; Moses smote the rock twice, and with faith mixed anger. Thus we still plough with an ox and an ass in the best duties. VII. God hideth His eyes from the evil that is in our good actions. He that drew Alexander while he had a scar upon his face, drew him with his finger upon the scar: God putteth the finger of mercy upon our scars. Job curseth the day of his birth; it is simply written, ‘Ye have heard of the patience of Job.’ How unlike are wicked men to the Lord; with them one blemish is enough to stain much glory, but with Him a little faith and a few works are thrown into everlasting honour.”
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.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v8 The Spies Saved by Rahab
The Spies Saved by Rahab
v. 8. And before they were laid down, she came up unto them upon the roof, where they were preparing to pass the night;
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v. 9. and she said unto the men, I know that the Lord, Jehovah, of whom she had heard and toward whom she felt a reverential awe, hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, namely, the fear that they would be exterminated by Israel, Deu 2:25; Deu 11:25, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you, are terrified and utterly discouraged by the obvious assistance which Jehovah had rendered His people.
v. 10. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when ye came out of Egypt, Exo 14:21; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed, Num 21:21-35.
v. 11. And as soon as we had heard these things, for Rahab here asserts of all her countrymen what she herself felt, our hearts did melt, said of complete discouragement, neither did there remain any more courage in any man because of you, they found it impossible to raise a bit of spirit, either to think, plan, or act, so great was their terror; for the Lord, your God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Thus Rahab, in concluding, confessed her faith in Jehovah, the true God. It is strange that the miracles of God’s almighty power, which wrought faith in the heart of this great sinner, caused the unbelieving hearts of the other Canaanites to become hardened and thus to be condemned to the judgment of death, of extermination.
v. 12. Now, therefore, I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord, since I have showed you kindness, in hiding them from the king’s messengers, that ye will also show kindness unto my father’s house and give me a true token, some sign of truth by which they would guarantee immunity to her and her relatives in the general extermination which was sure to come;
v. 13. and that ye will save alive my father, and my mother, and my brethren, and my sisters, and all that they have, her entire relationship, and deliver our lives from death. The sign of truth which she demanded was the solemn oath that they would save the lives of all her kin.
v. 14. And the men answered her, Our life for yours, literally, "our souls instead of yours to die" (they pledged their very souls for the truth of their promise to spare Rahab and her relatives), if ye utter not this our business, that is, if she would not betray them while they were on their way back to the camp of Israel. And it shall be, when the Lord hath given us the land, that we will deal kindly and truly with thee, show her this mercy and faithfulness, and save her life.
v. 15. Then she let them down by a cord, a strong rope, through the window; for her house was upon the town wall, built right against it, and she dwelt upon the wall, her chamber overhung the wall.
v. 16. And she said unto them as they stood below after their escape from the city, Get you to the mountain, a wild cliff north of Jericho, lest the pursuers meet you; and hide yourselves there three days, until the pursuers be returned; and afterward may ye go your way. Being familiar with the distances and all possible roads, she was able to give the spies this shrewd bit of advice.
v. 17. And the men said unto her, in order to obviate the danger of a false interpretation of their promise and oath, We will be blameless of this thine oath which thou hast made us swear, namely, unless she would do as they now directed her to act.
v. 18. Behold, when we come into the land, thou shall bind this line of scarlet thread, a thin, but strong rope, such as surveyors used, probably the one by which they had made their escape, in the window which thou didst let us down by; and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father’s household, who apparently were living in their own homes, home unto thee, thus having them all together in one house.
v. 19. And it shall be that whosoever shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, anywhere outside, his blood shall be upon his head, it would be his own fault if some soldier of Israel would strike him down, and we will be guiltless; and whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall be on our head if any hand be upon him, in that case they would assume the blame. That was the second condition.
v. 20. And if thou utter this our business, in betraying them after their departure, then we will be quit of thine oath which thou hast made us to swear. This third condition was really only a repetition of the chief condition made at the time they swore the oath, v. 14.
v. 21. And she said, According unto your words, so be it. She agreed to all the conditions. And she sent them away, and they departed; and she bound the scarlet line in the window, namely, when she found that she needed it for the stipulated purpose.
v. 22. And they went and came unto the mountain, and abode there three days, until the pursuers were returned; and the pursuers sought them throughout all the way, on every road which they could possibly have taken, but found them not.
v. 23. So the two men returned, and descended from the mountain, and passed over, over the river Jordan, and came to Joshua, the son of Nun, by the evening of the third day, and told him all things that befell them, gave him a full report of all that had happened to them;
v. 24. and they said unto Joshua, Truly the Lord hath delivered into our hands all the land; for even all the inhabitants of the country do faint because of us. Rahab, the harlot, is an example of faith, Heb 11:31, for the Lord has His elect in the midst of an unbelieving nation. She forsook the sinful business in which she was engaged, and afterward became an ancestress of Jesus, Mat 1:5. It was an act of faith on her part to shield those representatives of God’s people, Jas 2:25; Heb 11:31. True faith, love toward God, always shows itself in love toward the fellow-believers, in doing good to the members of God’s people and in resisting the enemies of the Lord.
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 vv6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15 But she had taken them ... on the roof
But she had taken them ... on the roof
This is background information and explains how she had hidden the men in Joshua 2:4. (See: Background Information)
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the roof
The roof was flat and strong, so people could walk around on it.
flax
a plant that is grown for its fibers, which is used in making cloth
the men pursued them
The men pursued the spies because of what Rahab had told them in Joshua 2:5.
fords
places where a river or other body of water is shallow enough for people to get to the other side by walking through it
translationWords
Jordan River
gate
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 vv6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 2:6 The inner fibers of flax were processed to…
2:6 The inner fibers of flax were processed to make linen. The first step involved laying out the flax stems to dry on the flat rooftop.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.